Vladyslav Vlasiuk, Ukraine’s presidential commissioner for sanctions policy, is lobbying in Washington for the passage of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. The bill passed the US Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support (86-11 on August 7), granting the president authority to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top five countries purchasing Russian oil. A bloc of House Democrats, led by Representatives Gregory Meeks, Richie Neal, and Don Beyer, opposes the legislation over concerns about granting sweeping unilateral tariff powers to the executive. The bill targets Russia’s shadow fleet and includes secondary sanctions that punish foreign banks processing transactions linked to Russian oil. The goal is to make purchasing Russian oil prohibitively expensive for countries like the UAE, Turkey, and India.
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