President Trump on Friday signed the Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act into law, legislation that imposes sweeping sanctions on Russia and provides the president with broad discretionary power to impose tariffs on nations that circumvent the measures.
The bill passed the House of Representatives two days earlier on a bipartisan vote of 262-159. The legislation is named after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who died in July. According to the Trump administration, the shift toward supporting additional sanctions came after diplomatic efforts to resolve Russia’s four-and-a-half-year war with Ukraine reached a stalemate, prompting a change from the administration’s previous skepticism toward imposing new economic measures on Moscow.
The sanctions provisions target Russia’s energy sector, including natural gas and oil revenues, as well as the countries that purchase Russian energy. The law also imposes new sanctions on Russian political and military officials, foreign networks supporting Russia’s military operations, and entities assisting Moscow in evading existing penalties. The legislation specifically addresses Russia’s fleet of shadow tankers, which the administration views as enabling continued crude oil shipments despite current energy export sanctions.
Critics, primarily Democrats, have raised concerns about the bill’s scope and the discretionary authority it grants to Trump. Opponents argue the legislation gives the president excessive power to implement tariffs, pointing to existing constraints under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act that they say prohibit such unilateral action. The bill permits tariffs of up to 100 percent on buyers of Russian energy, including China, and on countries assisting Moscow in sanctions evasion. Additionally, the law grants Trump broad latitude in determining which countries face tariffs, at what rates, and which sanctions provisions may be waived on a case-by-case basis.
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