The US Senate has advanced a long-awaited bipartisan bill to impose more restrictions on major buyers of Russian energy and extend penalties against Iran, paving the way for passage of long-stalled legislation championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham. The bill allows US President Donald Trump to impose tariffs on the world’s top five purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas, including India and China.
The measure, which has received support from Trump, received 86 to 12 votes, with nearly all Republicans and a majority of Democrats joining hands to make it cross the 60-vote threshold.
The passage of the bill in the Senate came hours after Graham, who died suddenly this month, was memorialised and not long after senators met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Capitol Hill, while he was there to honour the Republican senator who was a vocal critic of Russian aggression.
About The Bill
The bill would impose sanctions on Russian officials, oligarchs, financial institutions and the so-called shadow fleet used to evade restrictions on Moscow’s oil exports. It would also give Trump authority to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on goods from major purchasers of Russian oil and gas, especially China and India.
But it provides exceptions for countries that import less than 15 per cent of their natural gas from Russia and are taking steps to reduce those imports. The revised bill also extends existing sanctions authority aimed at restricting funding for Iran’s energy and weapons sectors, which was added at Trump’s request.
The legislation is named for Graham, who spent more than a year building support for it and reached an agreement with the White House on a revised version shortly before his sudden death earlier this month.
Supporters of the bill claim it’s necessary to choke off Moscow’s energy income, weakening Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to finance the war in Ukraine, now in its fifth year.
“There is no greater way to honor Senator Graham’s legacy than to move forward with this bipartisan agreement,” six Republican and Democratic senators said in a joint statement.
Despite broad support for punishing Russia, some Democrats have raised concerns that the tariff provisions hand Trump excessive power and could raise import costs for American consumers or hit European allies.
The legislation still must pass the Senate and be approved by the House of Representative before it can head to the president’s desk. The House has already left Washington for its summer recess and is unlikely to consider the bill before September.
