Sen. Lindsey Graham has said that Donald Trump is ready to “crush” the Russian economy if Vladimir Putin refuses to meet with Volodymyr Zelensky in the coming weeks to discuss an end to the Ukraine war.
Graham has reportedly been pressuring Trump for months to support a sweeping sanctions bill designed to punish the Kremlin by placing massive tariffs on any country that continues to buy Russian oil and gas, thereby indirectly helping to bankroll its invasion of its western neighbor state.
The legislation would most obviously hurt rival superpowers China and India, who currently account for 70 percent of Russia’s energy exports and would face 500 percent U.S. tariffs if it were to be enacted.
The Independent’s Owen Matthews has argued that Zelensky’s European allies have already missed their opportunity to hold Putin to account by starving Russia of fossil fuel revenues. However, the senator believes there is still time.
“If we don’t have this thing moving in the right direction by the time we get back, then I think that plan B needs to kick in,” Graham told the Associated Press in a phone interview this week.
His bipartisan bill has been endorsed by 85 of his fellow senators to date, but does not have the expressed support of the White House. Graham argues that its moment may come when the upper chamber of Congress reconvenes in September following its summer recess.
Graham said he had spoken to Trump on Tuesday, a day after he hosted several European heads of state and senior officials at the White House, including Zelensky, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Giorgia Meloni, Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte.
“Trump believes that if Putin doesn’t do his part, that he’s going to have to crush his economy. Because you’ve got to mean what you say,” Graham told reporters in his home state after his call with the president.
“There will come a point where if it’s clear that Putin is not going to entertain peace, that President Trump will have to back up what he said he would do. And the best way to do it is to have congressional blessing.”
Connecticut Sen. Richard Blumenthal, the top Democrat in support of Graham’s bill, has warned against excessive optimism regarding the prospects of a peace deal, given that the Russian leader emerged from his Alaska summit with Trump last week without making any definite commitments, suggesting he could be employing “rope-a-dope” tactics.
“The only way to bring Putin to the table is to show strength,” Blumenthal told the AP.
“What Putin understands is force and pressure.”
