- US Senate advances bill for 100% tariffs on Russian energy buyers.
- India, a top Russian oil buyer, faces significant economic disruption.
- New legislation, including Iran, allows presidential waiver authority.
In a major concern for India, the US Senate took the first steps toward passage of a sweeping Russian sanctions bill on Tuesday. If passed in both houses, it would give ultimate power to the US President to levy massive 100 per cent tariffs on the countries which are buying Russian energy. For India, it is a major unease as it buys a huge volume of Russian crude oil since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022.
The bipartisan 86-12 procedural vote came hours after a funeral for Republican Sen Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the bill's chief negotiator. Graham and Sen Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn, announced a deal with the White House on the sanctions legislation on July 10, a day before his sudden death. Graham had just returned from a trip to Ukraine, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The war-torn country’s president, who was in Washington to attend the service for Graham, met with senators beforehand and told them that Ukraine is making gains in its war with Russia, but still needs more help from the US.
A long-sought deal on Russian sanctions
Graham, Blumenthal and other supporters of Ukraine had been working for more than a year to pass the bill to impose steep tariffs on goods from countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports and deprive Russia of money it uses to fund its war against Ukraine.
The legislation is now renamed the 'Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026'. The extent of the bill, which was earlier limited to penalising those trading with Moscow, has now extended to Iran.
The five-year bill allows the president to impose tariffs on the world's top five purchasers of Russian oil or natural gas - with China and India at the top of that list.
It provides exceptions for countries that import less than 15 per cent of their natural gas from Russia and are taking steps to reduce those imports.
The negotiated bill also includes waiver authority for the president, allowing the White House to waive sanctions or restrictions if the president certifies to Congress that the waiver is in the national interest.
Why does it matter for India?
India has become one of the world’s largest buyers of Russian crude oil after Western sanctions reshaped global energy markets. Discounted Russian oil has enabled Indian refiners to lower costs, maintain stable fuel supplies, and boost refining margins. However, if the proposed US legislation is passed and tariffs are imposed, it could disrupt India’s energy trade with Russia and add fresh complexity to ongoing trade negotiations between New Delhi and Washington.
Hurdles for Trump
While the president's authority was narrowed somewhat in the bill, the latest version still met with some scepticism from Democrats who did not want to give US President Donald Trump additional powers to impose tariffs.
"It is extremely dangerous to give Trump massive new tariff powers, particularly after we've seen the disastrous impacts of his corrupt, chaotic, and inflationary tariff spree," said Sen Ron Wyden, D-Ore, in a statement with Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass.
(With inputs from agencies)