Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of former President Donald Trump, introduced the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025 in the US Senate in April this year. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (8) that he would strongly consider backing the proposed bill that aims to pressure Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war. The said bill proposes a 500% tariff on countries like India which purchase Russian energy products.
“I’m looking. It’s totally at my option. They pass it totally at my option, and to terminate totally at my option. And I’m looking at it very strongly,” said Trump to reporters during a Cabinet meeting.
The American leader also expressed mounting frustration at Russia’s Putin for refusing to end the conflict with Ukraine. As per reports from the Associated Press, Trump recently directed the US Department of Defense to send more defensive weapons to Ukraine. A 500% tariff on Russian-origin goods and services would be levied on Russian-origin oil, natural gas, uranium and petroleum products. It also mentions expansion of sanctions against Russian businesses, government institutions and top policymakers.
Senator Graham said the bill will target countries like India and China, according to Graham, who is currently pushing it through 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 said in a television interview in June.
With the support of Trump, the bill implementation would be expedited. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said there was “a lot of interest” in the new Russia sanctions bill and said more announcements could be made later this week. The bill also allows the President of the United States, capacity to issue one-time waiver of 180 days to a particular country in case “the President determines that such a waiver is in the national security interests of the United States”. According to reports in the American media, the bill is being changed to allow the President to issue a waiver a second time.
According to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, India was the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels in May. Fossil fuel worth €4.2 billion was purchased by India from Russia in May, with crude oil amounting to 72% of the total.
During his visit to Washington earlier this month, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that India is closely tracking the bill, and the Indian Embassy is in touch with Senator Graham regarding the bill.
“Regarding Senator Lindsey Graham’s bill, obviously, any development, which is happening in the US Congress is of interest to us, if it impacts our interest or could impact our interest. So we have been in touch with Senator Graham. The embassy and the ambassador have been in touch. I think our concerns and our interests on energy security have been made conversant to him, so we’ll then have to cross that bridge if we come to it,” Jaishankar told reporters in Washington.
