The United States Senate has approved a sanctions package aimed at increasing pressure on Russia’s energy exports.
The bill received bipartisan support from Republican and Democratic senators, who seek to push back against the Kremlin over its war in Ukraine.
The package includes sweeping tariffs of up to 500 per cent on imports from Russia, particularly oil and gas.
It also seeks to impose 100 per cent tariffs on the five biggest purchasers of Russian oil and gas, including China and India, according to a report by Agence France Presse.
Sanctions package
The bipartisan legislation was passed by a vote of 86 to 11, and will soon be heading to the House of Representatives.
The vote, according to AFP, will be held in early September after a congressional summer recess.
The sanctions were designed to hurt Moscow’s economy by choking off its energy revenues.
It would also target Russia’s shadow fleet, a network of aging ships that uses deceptive methods to bypass sanctions while transporting sanctioned oil and other goods.
“This could finally bring Russia to the negotiating table and end this conflict (between Russia and Ukraine),” Jim Risch, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said.
“It will make a decisive impact that goes beyond what can be achieved on the battlefield. It will cut off the flow of cash that powers Putin’s war machine.”
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Lindsey Graham’s legacy
Republican Senator Darline Graham echoed the statements, saying the bill “hits Putin where it hurts.”
The bill was long championed by her brother, Senator Lindsey Graham, who died on July 11.
Graham was a vocal advocate for sanctioning Russia. He spent his last days advancing the bill.
Before he passed, he had met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and revealed that he had secured the White House’s backing for the measure.
It was initially delayed by months of negotiations between the White House and Senate, with US President Donald Trump himself previously blocking it.
After Graham’s death, the senators named the bill in his honour, calling it the “Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia Act.”
Reservations in the House
The legislation would give the president power to issue tariffs on top Russian oil importers, mainly China and India, while also extending the sanctions against Iran.
However, House members expressed their reservations, with Representatives Gregory Meeks and Don Beyer saying that it could be used by Trump without restraint.
Both members called the plan “unacceptable.”
Meanwhile, Trade Representative Jamieson Greer assured that countries would no longer face the tariffs once they dropped out of the top five buyers of Russian oil and gas, according to Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock.
EU welcomes move
The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed the move.
“Together, let us drain Russia’s means to continue a war it cannot win,” she said.
On the other hand, the Russian Embassy condemned the bill last month.
It pointed out the energy shortages that resulted from the US-Israel war on Iran, adding that “with an impending energy crisis and rising gas prices on the eve of the midterm elections, sanctioning Russia and its trading partners… would be extremely counterproductive for the United States.”
The bill comes as Russia has intensified its missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and as Ukraine continues to retaliate with waves of drone attacks.
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Ciara Mina 
Jheruleene Anne Ramos