Trump Considers Lifting Sanctions on Putin’s ‘Slush Fund’

Four days after Russia launched its all-out effort to subjugate Ukraine, the US government and other Western allies fired a broadside of financial sanctions aimed at punishing the Kremlin’s wallet for the assault. The Russian Central Bank was prominent. So was a multibillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund that the Kremlin calls the Russian Direct Investment Fund, or RDIF. The U.S. Treasury called it “a slush fund for President Vladimir Putin [that] is emblematic of Russia’s broader kleptocracy.” After months of dormancy,…