US senator Lindsey Graham said that Trump had told him that the sanctions bill should be brought forward for a vote before the Senate.
US President Donald Trump has given nod to a Senate bill that could impose 500% tariffs on countries like China and India that buy Russian oil and energy products.
US senator Lindsey Graham said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that Trump had told him that the sanctions bill should be brought forward for a vote. Graham is sponsoring the tough new sanctions bill on Russia.
Graham called Trump’s decision “a big breakthrough” which he said was part of efforts to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table on Ukraine and give Trump “a tool” to bring that about.
“Big breakthrough here. So what does this bill do? If you’re buying products from Russia and you’re not helping Ukraine, then there’s a 500% tariff on your products coming into the United States. India and China buy 70% of Putin’s oil. They keep his war machine going,”
He stressed however that Trump had a waiver and could decide whether or not to sign it into law if and when it passes Congress.
“I’ve got 84 co-sponsors for a Russian sanctions bill that is an economic bunker buster against China, India, and Russia for Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. I think that bill’s going to pass,” Graham had said in an earlier interview.
India was the second largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in May 2025, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. It estimated that India purchased fossil fuels worth €4.2 billion from Russia in May, with crude oil amounting to 72% of the total.
Asked about Graham’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia was aware of the US senator’s stance and had taken note of his statement.
“The senator’s views are well known to us, they are well known to the whole world. He belongs to a group of inveterate Russophobes. If it were up to him, these sanctions would have been imposed long ago,” said Peskov.
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