A bipartisan legislative initiative has been launched by Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Lindsey Graham, aiming to “introduce primary and secondary sanctions against Russia and actors supporting Russia’s aggression in Ukraine.”
Blumenthal announced on his Senate website that the bill is backed by 50 other Republican and Democratic senators and proposes “a 500% tariff on goods imported from countries purchasing oil, gas, uranium, and other products from Russia.”
The complementary legislation is being introduced in the House of Representatives by Republican congressmen Brian Fitzpatrick and Joe Wilson, along with Democrats Mike Quigley and Marcy Kaptur.
Legislators indicate that the sanctions against Moscow “would be enforced if Russia refuses to engage in good-faith negotiations for a lasting peace with Ukraine,” adhering to the approach suggested by former U.S. President Donald Trump to “impose secondary tariffs on all oil leaving Russia.”
The bill’s authors emphasize that they share “President Trump’s frustration with Russia regarding achieving a ceasefire” and support the White House leader’s desire to “achieve a lasting, just, and honorable peace.”
Furthermore, they highlight that this initiative reflects “the prevailing view in the Senate” that “Russia is the aggressor and that this horrific war and [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s aggression must end now and be deterred in the future.”
In this context, they invoke the 1994 Budapest Memorandum and Ukraine’s renunciation of approximately 1,700 nuclear weapons, in exchange for a promise from the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom to preserve Ukrainian sovereignty in the future.
“This has failed to stop Russian aggression. In 2014 and 2015, the Minsk agreements were reached to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine [referring to the Crimean Peninsula and eastern Ukraine], but once again, failed to deter future aggressions,” the two senators observe, adding that in 2022, “Russia invaded Ukraine once more, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and the displacement of millions.”
The sanctions, they mention, “are ready” and, if submitted for a vote in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, “will receive overwhelming bipartisan and bicameral support,” listing the names of the other 48 senators involved in the initiative.
“We hope that by 2025, President Trump and his team will achieve what eluded the world in the past: permanently ending Russian aggression against Ukraine and ensuring the survival of a free and democratic Ukraine,” the bill’s authors further declare.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb referred to this initiative in the U.S. Congress, commenting on social media platform X that it is an ambitious sanctions package, coupled with imposing a clear deadline on Russia for unconditional ceasefire, marking a step toward a just and lasting peace in Ukraine.
The Finnish leader met with Donald Trump last weekend at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, where during an informal trip, the two leaders played golf and discussed the war in Ukraine.
According to Stubb, during the meeting, the U.S. leader asked him if Vladimir Putin, who had allegedly agreed to a partial ceasefire in Ukraine only to later impose new conditions and avoid its implementation, was trustworthy.
The Finnish President responded that the Russian leader is not trustworthy and proposed imposing a strict deadline on Moscow to sign a full and unconditional ceasefire, which could be April 20, coinciding with the first three months of Trump’s second term.
“The best way to stop Russia’s war of aggression is to maximize pressure on Moscow,” Alexander Stubb insisted today.
Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of violating a truce concerning attacks on energy infrastructure, announced last week by Washington, following separate meetings with delegations from Moscow and Kiev in Saudi Arabia.
However, no specific date, conditions, or monitoring of the agreement were mentioned.
