Donald Trump signed a Russia sanctions bill named after the late Senator Lindsey Graham into law on Friday, giving the president power to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas. The bill passed the House of Representatives earlier this week, the BBC reported.
What else does the law contain? The 48-page bill is formally titled the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 and, at the behest of Trump, also applies to Iran's energy and weapons sectors. It includes exceptions for countries that import less than 15% of their natural gas from Russia and are working to lessen their dependency. It also includes sanctions against Russian President Vladimir Putin, senior figures in the Russian government, banks and other financial institutions, and Russia's "shadow fleet" of tankers used to circumvent existing sanctions. Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, previously described the legislation as "scorching sanctions" that would "throttle Putin's war machine".
Who buys Russia's oil and gas? China and India are the most significant of the top five purchasers, the BBC reported. Data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air shows China accounted for 50% of Russian crude exports between December 2022 and August 2026, followed by India at 37%. Turkey and the European Union each accounted for 5% over the same period, although Russian energy exports to the EU have been decreasing.
Who was Lindsey Graham? Graham died on 11 July, aged 71, of an "aortic dissection" caused by cardiovascular disease shortly after returning from a trip to Kyiv, the BBC reported. "He died doing the work he was born to do," Trump said at the time. Graham had long sought to push the Trump administration to do more to punish Russia for the war that followed its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He was widely considered one of Ukraine's fiercest allies on Capitol Hill.
How did Ukraine respond? Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who supported the bill, thanked Trump for signing the "critically important legislation". "The best way to honour Lindsey's memory will be to implement the provisions of this law fully and swiftly," Zelensky said in a social media post. "Senator Graham never doubted for a second that America has enough strength to stand up to dictators and achieve results if it acts the right way," he said.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
