Counter to recent statements on Russian sanctions by the US Administration, Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) claimed on Sunday that the bill he introduced proposing new penalties on Russia will pass Congress in July, and President Donald Trump will sign it.
Graham said that Trump now supports his bill, which proposes imposing a 500-percent tariff on imported Russian goods. But, Graham added, Trump himself would make the final decision on how precisely to impose those measures independently, the senator told ABC News.
Those goods include Russian oil, natural gas and uranium.
“If you’re buying products from Russia and you’re not helping Ukraine, then there’s a 500 percent tariff on your products coming into the United States,” Graham said, explaining the language of the bill.
“India and China buy 70 percent of Putin’s oil. They keep his war machine going. My bill has 84 co-sponsors. It would allow the president to put tariffs on China and India and other countries to stop them from supporting Putin’s war machine, to get him to the table,” Graham added.
“But we’re going to give President Trump a tool in the toolbox he doesn’t have today.”
While the European Union continues to move forward with restrictive measures on Russia, extending its 17th such round of sanctions last week, and proposing to eliminate its Russian fuel imports in its next round, Trump has been reticent about adding any additional penalties on Moscow.
Last Wednesday, June 25, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explicitly said that Trump would not support Europe’s request to strengthen sanctions, because the US president fears that would derail the already sputtering peace negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv.
Graham announced the bill in April, about a month before he and Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) visited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv. At the time, he said the bill had 67 co-sponsors in he Senate. Now it has 84.
In an upper chamber split between 53 Republicans and 47 Democrats, that gives Graham’s bill strong bi-partisan support.
“Ukraine’s fight is our fight,” Blumenthal, one of the Democratic co-sponsors said during his Kyiv visit. “Our national security is at stake because [Russian autocrat] Vladimir Putin will keep going and his aggression will continue not just against Ukraine but against our allies, and we will be obligated by our treaty to put troops on the ground,” Blumenthal said.
“Now is the time to stop Putin, now is the time to support Ukraine and I’m inspired by the continuing bravery and strength of the Ukrainian people,” he said.