US Senate passes Lindsey Graham’s bill to tighten sanctions on Russia and Iran
On Friday, 7 August, the US Senate passed a bill introduced by the late Senator Lindsey Graham to tighten sanctions on Russia and Iran.
This was reported by Censor.NET, citing Reuters.
Senate passes bill
The bill, introduced by the late Lindsey Graham, was backed by 86 senators, with 11 voting against it. It now heads to the House of Representatives.
The legislation provides for 100% secondary tariffs on countries that continue to purchase Russian oil and gas, primarily China and India.
The bill also provides for sanctions against Russia’s "shadow fleet" of tankers, Russian financial institutions, including the Central Bank of Russia, and major state-owned energy projects, including Yamal LNG, Arctic LNG 1, Arctic LNG 2 and Arctic LNG 3.
It should be recalled that at the end of July, US senators added financial sanctions against Iran in a bipartisan sanctions package targeting Russia, which they hoped to pass before the August recess.
More about the bill
Lindsey Graham’s bill enjoys significant bipartisan support in the US Senate and is regarded as one of the key instruments for increasing economic pressure on Russia. It is intended to reduce Moscow’s revenues from oil and gas sales and block routes used to circumvent sanctions through third countries.
The bill’s main provisions include:
- sanctions against Russia’s leadership, state-owned banks, energy sector and so-called "shadow fleet";
- authorising the US president to impose secondary tariffs of up to 100% on countries that continue purchasing significant volumes of Russian oil, gas and other energy resources. The original version proposed a rate of 500%, but negotiations reduced the maximum to 100%;
- allowing the president to temporarily delay the application of certain sanctions or tariffs if doing so serves US national interests.
