Senate advances Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act, 86-12, imposing 100% secondary tariffs on Russian oil buyers
The US Senate voted 86-12 to advance a Russia sanctions bill imposing 100% secondary tariffs on countries still buying Russian oil and gas. The vote came hours after a funeral for the bill's namesake, the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, which Zelenskyy attended, per Axios and The Hill.
The US Senate voted 86-12 on Tuesday to advance the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, a sanctions package that would impose 100% secondary tariffs on countries that continue purchasing Russian oil and gas. The procedural vote took place hours after a funeral service for Graham in Washington, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended, according to Axios and The Hill. Eleven Democrats and one Republican, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, voted against the legislation. Graham's sister Darline, appointed to fill his Senate seat after his death, is now a lead sponsor of the bill her brother spent more than a year crafting. The scale of the bipartisan margin indicates the sanctions package has cleared a procedural threshold that had stalled similar Russia sanctions efforts for much of the year. A 100% secondary tariff would apply not to Russia directly but to any third country continuing to trade in Russian energy, a mechanism that would extend the bill's reach to major buyers such as India and China.