President Trump has signed a sweeping new sanctions law aimed directly at the money that keeps Vladimir Putin’s war machine moving—and the countries and financial networks that help Moscow dodge the pressure.
The Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act gives the president a new arsenal of economic tools against Russian officials, oligarchs, banks, energy interests, and the shadow fleet used to move sanctioned oil around the world.
It also extends key sanctions authorities against Iran for another five years, preserving American leverage against a regime that continues to sponsor terrorism and pursue its nuclear ambitions.
Washington has produced plenty of strongly worded resolutions. This one is now the law of the land.
The White House confirmed that President Trump signed H.R. 5334 on Friday.
The administration’s official notice says the law expands statutory sanctions, tariffs, and prohibitions on Russia while extending existing sanctions on Iran.
The administration supported the measure as a way to strengthen President Trump’s hand in negotiations without locking him into a permanent economic war. That structure links economic pressure to a defined diplomatic objective: stopping the fighting on terms that can hold.
Its formal policy statement identified Russian officials, financial institutions, and entities tied to the Kremlin as mandatory sanctions targets. It also backed new costs for foreign actors that continue doing business with sanctioned Russian interests, especially the energy trade that supplies Moscow with hard currency for weapons, troops, and continued attacks on Ukraine.
Crucially, the law preserves presidential waiver authority and permits sanctions to be terminated after an acceptable peace agreement and an end to hostilities.
On Iran, it extends the Iran Sanctions Act for five years. The White House says those authorities remain essential to counter Tehran’s terrorism support and nuclear ambitions.
Together, those provisions turn the bill from a symbolic rebuke into an enforcement framework that can pressure hostile governments, their banks, their commercial partners, and their revenue streams.
The central idea is brutally simple: Russia cannot keep fighting an expensive war without energy revenue, banks, ships, middlemen, and foreign buyers willing to keep the cash flowing.
The new law attacks that system from several directions at once.
It authorizes sanctions against Russian political and military figures, oligarchs, financial institutions, and foreign actors supporting Moscow’s war effort. It also targets Russia’s so-called shadow fleet—a web of tankers with opaque ownership and shifting flags that has helped the Kremlin move oil while evading existing restrictions.
The law’s tariff authority may be its most powerful warning. It allows President Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on goods from the largest countries continuing to purchase Russian oil and gas or enable sanctions evasion.
In plain English: major buyers may be forced to choose between helping finance Putin’s war and enjoying normal access to the American market.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee says the package imposes both primary and secondary sanctions, reaching Russian targets as well as outside actors that help fund or conceal the war effort.
The committee said the tariff provision is focused on the five largest importers of Russian crude oil and gas. That narrower target gives the president leverage against the biggest sources of Kremlin revenue without pretending every transaction carries the same strategic weight.
The legislation also preserves presidential discretion. The White House supported the bill because President Trump retains waiver authority and may terminate sanctions after Russia accepts a peace agreement and hostilities end.
That distinction matters. Sanctions should create leverage for a result, not punishment without purpose.
President Trump now has a tool that can raise the cost of continued aggression while preserving an off-ramp if Moscow chooses peace.
The bill passed with broad bipartisan support—a rarity in the current Congress and a sign that lawmakers understood both the stakes and the leverage involved.
It also honors the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who spent years pushing for tougher pressure on Russia and worked on the legislation until shortly before his death. Senators from both parties described the law as a fitting final chapter in that effort.
Moscow’s reaction suggests the pressure landed where intended.
Russian officials denounced the measure, while supporters in Congress argued that the outrage reveals how seriously the Kremlin takes a law aimed at its oil and gas revenue.
Senator Jim Risch said the law targets the illicit shadow fleet Russia uses to evade energy sanctions and gives the United States new tools to curtail the machinery financing the war.
The Iran provisions are just as consequential. The law extends the Iran Sanctions Act through 2031, maintaining authorities intended to constrain Tehran’s energy sector, support for terrorism, and nuclear ambitions.
That means the United States is applying one coherent principle to two hostile regimes: access to global money and markets is not an entitlement when those revenues underwrite war, terrorism, and threats to American security.
No sanctions package is self-executing. Treasury officials must identify targets, enforce restrictions, track evasive shipping and financial networks, and make clear that violations carry real consequences.
But Congress has handed President Trump the authority, and he has put his signature on it.
The next move belongs to Moscow, Tehran, and the foreign buyers still helping them. They can change course—or discover how expensive doing business against the United States can become.
The post President Trump Signs Sanctions Hammer Aimed at Russia’s War Machine and Iran appeared first on 100PercentFedUp.com.
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