On October 9, hours after a phone call between President Trump and President Putin, the Treasury Department issued a six-month waiver allowing Russian diesel to be sold on the global market. The stated aim is to bring down fuel prices before the November 3 midterms. But I believe the deal is more consequential than that. It fits a larger strategy: for the United States to control as much of the world’s energy supply as possible, while denying it to its chief rival, China. A pattern, not a one-off The strategy began in Venezuela. Since US…