US Senate adopts new sanctions on Russia

US senators overwhelmingly approved new sanctions against Russia on Friday, specifically targeting its energy sector revenues.

The legislation requires approval from the House of Representatives, but a vote on it will not take place until early September due to the congressional recess.

Senator Jim Risch, the Republican chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, said, “This bill brings us closer to ending the conflict” between Russia and Ukraine.

In remarks delivered inside the chamber before the vote, he added, “It will have a decisive impact beyond what can be achieved on the battlefield, as it will cut off the flow of funds fueling President Vladimir Putin’s war machine.”

The bill targets the Russian fossil fuel sector, particularly by imposing a 500% tariff on imports from Russia, including gas and oil.

It also stipulates a 100% tariff on the five main importers of Russian gas and oil, including China and India.

The legislation also imposes new sanctions on President Putin and other senior Russian officials.

For the first time, the United States is targeting Russia’s “shadow fleet,” a group of ships used by Moscow to circumvent Western sanctions imposed since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The bill is named in honor of Senator Lindsey Graham, who died suddenly on July 11 and had strongly advocated for new sanctions against Moscow due to its invasion of Ukraine.

On the day before his death, Graham, alongside members of the Senate from both the Republican and Democratic parties, announced that the White House had agreed to approve new sanctions targeting Russian fossil fuels, measures that President Donald Trump had previously obstructed.

His sister, Darlene Graham, who succeeded him in the Senate, stated that the final passage of the bill would not only honor her brother but also “deliver a painful blow to Putin.”

Speaking in the chamber before Friday’s vote, she said the legislation includes measures “specifically targeting Russia’s supporters of the war in Ukraine.”

The new senator added that this “forces key countries keeping the Russian economy afloat to make a simple but decisive choice: either trade with America or buy cheap Russian energy.”

Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat and member of the Foreign Relations Committee, stated that “Vladimir Putin only understands the language of force and responds only to pressure.”

In a statement on Tuesday, she said, “This bill represents our best opportunity to finally subdue the Russian war machine and force Putin to sit at the negotiating table.”

However, some Democratic lawmakers expressed concern over the new tariff authorities granted to Donald Trump under this new law.

According to Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer finally provided assurances that the tariffs imposed on the top five importers of Russian fossil fuels would be lifted for any country removed from the top-five list.

In late July, the Russian Embassy in the United States condemned the bill, stating that it “harms the United States.”

In a statement, the embassy noted that amid the war in Iran and “with an impending energy crisis and rising fuel prices on the eve of the midterm elections, imposing sanctions on Russia and its trading partners… would have severely adverse consequences for the United States itself.”

In addition to sanctions on Russia, the legislation aims to prevent the expiration of sanctions on Iran’s energy and arms sectors.