A sweeping bill to tighten sanctions on Russia has gathered enough support in the US Senate to advance, but its most striking feature, a power to impose steep tariffs on countries that keep buying Russian oil, has prompted warnings that it could backfire on the United States by weakening confidence in the dollar.
The Sanctioning Russia Act of 2026, unveiled on July 14, would place new sanctions on Russian officials, energy companies and the "shadow fleet" of tankers Moscow uses to move its oil. Its centerpiece would authorize the president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on nations that continue to purchase large volumes of Russian crude and gas, with the biggest buyers, among them China and India, the primary targets.
A bill in a senator's name
The legislation carries unusual political weight as a tribute to the late Senator Lindsey Graham, long one of the loudest advocates for punishing Moscow, and its backers have cast passage as a way to honor him. It has drawn more than 60 co-sponsors from both parties, in principle enough to overcome a filibuster in the Senate.
Supporters say the measure would squeeze the revenues that fund Russia's war in Ukraine and give Washington leverage to pull other countries away from Russian energy. The current text is a compromise: earlier drafts had floated tariffs as high as 500%, since pared back to a ceiling of 100%, with exemptions for countries that buy relatively little Russian gas and are cutting back.
The White House on board, for now
President Trump has publicly backed the bill, and the administration helped shape its language before it was introduced. The revised version includes a waiver letting the president suspend the penalties if he judges it in the national interest, preserving his flexibility. Mr. Trump has also urged lawmakers to fold in sanctions on Iran and Hezbollah, though supporters say the priority is to pass the Russia measure first.
Its path is not assured. Clearing the Senate would not guarantee approval in the House, and the interplay between the sanctions and the president's own trade agenda leaves room for the details to shift.
The warning about the dollar
The sharpest note of caution comes not from Russia's defenders but from economists worried about unintended consequences. Using tariffs and secondary sanctions this broadly, they argue, risks pushing trading partners to reduce their reliance on the US dollar, the currency at the center of global finance and a key source of American power.
Countries hit with penalties for buying Russian oil, the argument runs, have an incentive to settle more trade in other currencies and to diversify their reserves, accelerating a slow shift already under way. China, for instance, now settles a substantial share of its foreign trade in its own currency, the yuan, up sharply from a few years ago. Critics of the tariff provisions say the bill could prove self-defeating, nudging big economies toward the very alternative payment systems that Washington's financial dominance depends on them not using.
An unresolved trade-off
Whether those fears are overblown is contested; the dollar's role is deeply entrenched, and no rival is close to replacing it. But the debate captures a genuine tension at the heart of the bill: the same financial weapons that let the United States punish Moscow also test the willingness of others to keep playing by American rules. As the legislation moves ahead, that trade-off, between pressuring Russia today and preserving US financial leverage tomorrow, remains unsettled.
