It’s taken well over a year of stops, starts, promises and derailments, but the Senate has at last advanced a bone-crushing package of sanctions against Russia, capping off one of the late Sen.Lindsey Graham’s biggest fights.The Lindsey O.
Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act sailed through the Senate on another colossal bipartisan vote and is now headed to the House.It has the backing of President Donald Trump, too.It comes after personal lobbying from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last week, who, hours after Graham’s memorial service in Washington, D.C., pleaded with lawmakers to put a check on Russian President Vladimir Putin.GRAHAM'S FINAL MISSION ADVANCES AS SENATE MOVES TO CRUSH PUTIN'S WAR MACHINE WITH RUSSIA, IRAN SANCTIONSSen.
Lindsey Graham is pictured before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address during a joint session of Congress at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb.24, 2026.
(Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)"Today, President Zelenskyy is watching from Ukraine, and Putin is watching from Moscow," Sen.Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said on the Senate floor.
"I would like to think that Lindsey Graham is watching, too."The bill focuses on kneecapping Putin’s war machine by targeting Moscow’s top financial driver: oil and gas sales.It also extends sanction authority against Iran that hampers funding to the country’s weapons and energy sectors as the administration and negotiators abroad seek to find a long-lasting peace agreement for the war in the Middle East.There are also targeted sanctions against Putin, Russian officials and Russian military leaders, up to 500% tariffs on Russian imports, tariffs of up to 100% on the top five countries buying Russian energy, like China and India, and gives Trump flexibility for when to turn off some aspects of the sanctions.'A BIG EFFING DEAL': GRAHAM'S FINAL MISSION MOVES FORWARD AFTER HIS DEATHThe tariff authority, however, threatened one last derailment of the p...