By Timothy Gardner and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON, July 14 (Reuters) – U.S. senators on Tuesday unveiled an updated version of the Russia sanctions bill, championed by the late Senator Lindsey Graham, which eases the original proposal’s tariff threat on China, India and other importers of Russian oil and gas.
The bill, backed by both Republican and Democratic senators, seeks to impose sanctions on Russian officials and to use tariffs to pressure China and India to reduce their dependence on Russia as an energy supplier.
Graham, who died suddenly on Saturday, had announced during a trip to Ukraine just a day earlier that he had reached an agreement with Republican President Donald Trump to move forward with the bill, more than a year after it was introduced.
Senate aides said there were 26 co-sponsors for the bill, and they expected more within several hours, expressing optimism about its chances of passage. “We’re pretty confident on its path,” one aide said.
The bill is changed from the original version introduced by Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, in April 2025.
The new version of the measure eases tariffs that could be placed on third-party buyers of Russian oil and natural gas to a maximum of 100% on the top five purchasers, from the previous proposal’s blanket 500%.
It also allows an exception for countries which import less than 15% of Russia’s natural gas exports and which are taking significant steps to reduce those imports, which could exempt Japan, France, Hungary and Belgium.
The top five purchasers of Russian crude are China, India, Slovakia, Hungary and Azerbaijan, and the top importers of Russian natural gas are China, France, Japan, Hungary and Belgium, the aides said.
The measure also imposes sanctions on Russia’s shadow fleet of tankers that do not depend on Western maritime services, on Russian financial institutions including the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, and on Russia’s largest state-owned energy projects, including Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG 1, 2 and 3.
In addition, the new version includes a provision that allows Trump to waive the sanctions if he deems it in the U.S. national interest to do so.
BUY IN FROM EVERYBODY
Asked about the softening of some of the provisions from the original bill, one of the Senate aides noted the months of negotiations that had gone into getting a deal with Trump.
“This is the only product that currently has buy-in from everybody and is likely the only product that is going to move forward and put pressure on Russia the way we would all like to get,” the aide said. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions surrounding the bill were confidential.
Trump told reporters at the White House earlier on Tuesday that sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah might be added to the bill, saying it would be a “very big thing” if those measures were added.
Blumenthal expressed caution, however, about adding new targets in the bill. “With all due respect to the president, he has approved this bill, and we should move forward with this bill rather than opening it, in my view, to other potential targets,” Blumenthal told reporters.
Asked about Trump’s comment, a second Senate aide said the bill exposes countries such as Iran that work with the Russian defense industrial base to sanctions and tariffs.
Trump also expressed optimism that the bill would pass and become law.
“This is in honor of Lindsey. This was his thing. He wanted this more than anything. You know how he felt, and there’s a good chance that it gets done,” Trump said.
(Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Timothy Gardner; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and David Ljunggren; Editing by Edmund Klamann)
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