Leading Senate Republicans want to vote within the next month on a package of bills to pressure Russia to compromise in Ukraine peace talks, but it’s not clear if President Donald Trump will back the legislation.
A White House official said any such bills must not tie Trump’s hands.
“The White House is working with Congress to ensure introduced bills advance the President’s foreign policy objectives and authorities,” the official said in an email response to a query. “The Constitution vests the president with the authority to conduct diplomacy with foreign nations. Any sanction package must provide complete flexibility for the president to continue to pursue his desired foreign policy.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., indicated he supports in principle holding votes on a Russia package, to include a long-stalled sanctions measure. Senators said the package could include at least four bills, either separately or together.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved three of those bills on Wednesday.
One committee-approved measure would spell out a process for sending to Ukraine $5 billion in frozen Russian assets under U.S. jurisdiction. Another would require sanctions on people or entities from China that aid Russia’s military. And a third would require that Russia be declared a state sponsor of terrorism unless it repatriates Ukrainian children that Russians have abducted.
The other bill on the Senate’s Russia to-do list — where it has been for the better part of this year — is the sanctions measure by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn.
Their bill would, as long as Russia continues its war, impose more sanctions on Moscow and also place tariffs of 500 percent on goods imported into the United States from countries that buy Russian petroleum and uranium.
Russia, Russia, Russia
Thune said earlier this month he was prepared to bring up the Graham-Blumenthal bill — only to then see Trump call to put it on hold after the president had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Thune told reporters Thursday he is trying again, but he gave no indication Trump is any more supportive now.
“I think Sen. Graham is suggesting a ‘Russia Week,’” Thune told reporters Thursday afternoon. “We’ll take a look at what that might consist of. I’ve been interested for some time in getting the sanctions bill up on the floor. We’re trying to do that in concert and coordination with the White House to make sure that we’re giving them the best possible opportunity to succeed in getting Russia to the table and hopefully get a peaceful outcome.”
Asked if Trump supports the sanctions bill now, Thune said: “There are things that they would like to see incorporated in it,” without elaborating.
Trump supports sanctions legislation “as a general matter,” Thune said. “But I also think that they are looking at what gives them the best tools and leverage in dealing with the Russians. So we’re in conversation with them.”
When Graham was asked if Trump would support his sanctions bill now, he said: “You need to talk to him.”
New Treasury sanctions
Trump announced on Wednesday U.S. sanctions on Americans doing business with Russia’s two biggest energy companies. The order said foreigners may be penalized but did not require it.
China and India are the two biggest importers of Russian crude oil, and China is the biggest buyer of Russian coal exports.
Critics said Trump’s order, announced by the Treasury Department, would not dent Russia’s economy, and Putin said the same on Thursday.
William Browder, CEO of Hermitage Capital investment fund, said on the social platform X that the U.S. sanctions “won’t seriously deprive Putin of his war dollars unless we sanction the 8 refineries that buy the oil in China, India and Turkey.”
Phillips O’Brien, professor of strategic studies at Scotland’s University of St. Andrews, had a similar take on X.
“The Trump ‘harsh’ sanctions on Russia last night were anything but,” O’Brien wrote. “They actually provide protection for Russia’s biggest oil customers to transact business for at least the next 4 weeks — and have no automatic sanction after that. Take a deep breath.”
Foreign buyers
Still, less than a day after Trump’s announcement, Reuters reported that India’s top refiner is looking at halting oil purchases from its biggest Russian supplier, and four major state-owned Chinese oil companies have suspended their purchases of seaborne Russian oil.
“It’s already paying dividends,” Graham said of Trump’s new sanctions.
The Russian energy producers “become sanctioned entities under the United States law, and that puts China in a bind, and it puts everybody else in a bind,” Graham said. “So what I want to do is give him the legislative blessing of tariffs to be used to go after customers” of Russian energy.
China and India are not the only countries indirectly bankrolling Russia’s war on Ukraine.
European Union nations still buy more Russian liquefied natural gas than China, and NATO member Turkey is the top purchaser of Russian oil products, according to the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
But EU countries on Wednesday approved a 19th package of sanctions on Moscow for its war against Ukraine that included a ban on Russian liquefied natural gas imports.
Graham said Putin’s rebuff of Trump’s proposal for a ceasefire along current battle lines should be “the last straw” for Congress and the president.
“If they don’t change their behavior and accept the Trump proposal of a ceasefire in place, then it’s incumbent upon the United States, working with our allies, to apply more pressure,” Graham said.
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