A bipartisan group of US senators have prepared an anti-Russia sanctions nuclear option in the case that Moscow refuses to sign on to Trump efforts to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.
The 50 Republicans and Democrats which introduced the sanctions package Tuesday are led by Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, and their bill would impose a 500% tariff on imported goods from countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and several other products. American citizens would also be prohibited from buying Russian sovereign debt.
“The sanctions against Russia require tariffs on countries who purchase Russian oil, gas, uranium and other products. They are hard hitting for a reason,” the Senators wrote in a Tuesday statement.
“These sanctions against Russia are at the ready and will receive overwhelming bipartisan, bicameral support if presented to the Senate and House for a vote,” they added.
“The dominating view in the United States Senate is that Russia is the aggressor, and that this horrific war and Putin’s aggression must end now and be deterred in the future.”
This in part springs from growing concern that despite President Trump’s good-faith efforts, even dangling the possibility of dropping sanctions to get the Kremlin quickly to the negotiating table, Moscow is intentionally stalling while it presses the war forward.
President Trump told reporters over the weekend aboard Air Force one of Putin and his officials, “If I think they’re tapping us along, I will not be happy about it.”
China and India would come under the immediate crosshairs, as they’ve remained top importers of Russian oil since the start of the Ukraine war.
However, the bill leaves open the option of granting presidential waivers on national security grounds, with Bloomberg pointing to the likely chance of a “confrontation” with India and China over the secondary sanctions and the “difficult position” the EU has found itself in.
In Europe, the lure of a return to cheap Russian energy is ever-present, and as we noted, senior German politicians are already calling for a resumption of ties with Russia. For example Michael Kretschmer, a senior member of Friedrich Merz’s centre-right Christian Democrats, is now arguing that EU sanctions on Russia are “completely out of date” as they increasingly openly contradict “what the Americans are doing.”
Financial Times in a report quoted Kretschmer’s words to the German press agency DPA as follows: “When you realize that you’re weakening yourself more than your opponent, then you have to think about whether all of this is right.”
50 US Senators have introduced a bill that includes the most intense Russia sanctions to date including a 500% (!) additional tariff on any countries buying Russian hydrocarbons & uranium, putting SWIFT into law, and perma-freezing Russian sovereign debt & securities. Wow. pic.twitter.com/Mg8hJIN1oY
— Maximilian Hess (@zakavkaza) April 2, 2025
At the same time, Hungary and Slovakia not only continue bypassing Ukraine for imports of Russian gas – after Ukraine broke from the transit of Russian gas on January 1st – but are actually boosting these supplies.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced on Tuesday that the Veľké Zlievce/Balassagyarmat interconnection point from Hungary to Slovakia has been brought to full capacity this week due to the stoppage through Ukraine.
Tyler Durden
Wed, 04/02/2025 – 09:00
