The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has signed this Friday a new decree that strengthens the current sanctions regime against Russia and Iran and that contemplates the possible imposition of tariffs on the main buyers of oil and gas from the Kremlin, according to the White House.
The regulation approved this week by the Congress of the United States grants Trump a wide margin of maneuver to set levies of up to 100% on the five largest importers of Russian hydrocarbons, among which China and India stand out prominently.
Directly driven by the White House, the law — renamed in memory of the late Republican Senator Lindsey Graham — also expands the range of sanctions aimed at the energy and arms sectors of Iran. The text includes explicit punitive measures against the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as well as against high officials of his government, oligarchs close to the Kremlin, and various financial entities.
"According to the bill, the president must impose sanctions that block the granting of visas and property to certain individuals (natural and legal persons), such as the Russian president, certain military commanders, and any foreign person who knowingly provides goods or services related to the country's defense industrial base," reads the text.
The final approval occurs after overcoming the legislative process in Congress, where some Democratic representatives have expressed their reservations about the breadth of the tariff power granted to the president.
This initiative is framed within the ongoing energy crisis resulting from the confrontation between the United States and Iran, which initially benefited Moscow, to the point that the Trump administration granted temporary exemptions for purchases of Russian crude that were already in transit at sea.
In this scenario, Senator Lindsey Graham, one of the staunchest defenders of Ukraine in the U.S. Senate, vigorously promoted the new sanctions package until his sudden death in July, after returning from an official visit to Kiev.
"I thank President Trump for signing this critically important legislation. I thank all the senators and members of the House of Representatives who supported it. The best way to honor Lindsey's memory will be to implement the provisions of this law fully and quickly. And the best reward for all those who help us pressure Russia to end its war will be peace," has expressed on his social networks the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky.