In the US Senate, a bipartisan group of 62 senators has backed the updated Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026. The bill proposes new primary and secondary sanctions against Russian officials, financial institutions and entities that support the Russian military-industrial complex, and also provides for tariffs on certain foreign buyers of Russian oil and gas.
Briefly about the main points
- The revised bill was backed by 62 US senators.
- There is more than 60 votes in favour of breaking the filibuster.
- The document provides for primary and secondary sanctions against Russian entities.
- The President may be granted the power to impose duties of up to 100%.
- The law has not yet been passed and has not yet come into force.
What restrictions does the document propose?
The draft law is aimed at Russian officials, oligarchs and their family members, as well as banks and other financial institutions in the Russian Federation. The list also includes «shadow fleet»and foreign nationals who are assisting the Russian defence-industrial complex.".
A separate section deals with third countries. It is proposed that the US President be granted the power to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the five largest buyers of Russian oil or gas and the five largest facilitators of the circumvention of oil sanctions. This is a right, not an automatic obligation, of the President.
The compromise changed the tariff mechanism
The updated version relaxes the previous, stricter approach to tariffs. Instead of a broad, automatic rate, the draft bill provides for a targeted mechanism which the White House will be able to apply to specific categories of countries and entities.
The document also includes an exemption for countries where Russian gas accounts for less than 15% of the Russian Federation’s total gas exports and which are significantly reducing their dependence on it. This structure makes the initiative not only a package of sanctions against Russia, but also a tool for potentially exerting trade pressure on those involved in its energy exports.
The agreement with the administration and the Senate’s response
10 July: Jean Shahin, Richard Blumenthal, Lindsay Graham and Roger Vicker announced that an agreement had been reached with Donald Trump’s administration to push forward the revised text. However, this announcement does not constitute a formal guarantee that the President will sign the bill in any form.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called on Republican Majority Leader John Thune to put the bill to a vote. Vicker stated that the aim of the initiative was to increase economic pressure on Vladimir Putin’s war machine, whilst Darlene Graham described the bill as an additional lever for Trump in his attempts to end the war.
What do 62 votes mean for further consideration?
The number of supporters exceeds the 60-vote threshold normally required to overcome a filibuster in the Senate. This creates a real procedural opportunity to move the bill forward in the upper house, but does not amount to its final adoption.
For the sanctions to come into force, the bill must be passed by Congress in identical form and signed by the President. A previous initiative, the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, introduced in April 2025, remained referred to the Senate Banking Committee. The practical impact of the new mechanism will also depend on whether the White House exercises the proposed tariff powers.
