House sends Trump a Russia bill that can tariff Indian oil buyers at 100 percent

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 by 262 votes to 159 on Wednesday. The Senate had already approved the same text 86-11 on 7 August. The bill now sits on Donald Trump's desk. A White House official said he planned to sign it.

The statute does two different jobs. First, it tightens sanctions on Russia's energy and defence sectors and on the tanker fleet used to move oil outside the existing price cap. Second, it authorises the president to impose tariffs of up to 100 percent on the five largest buyers of Russian oil and gas. The text does not name those buyers. India and China are the two largest. Turkey, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Slovakia, the UAE, Singapore, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan appear in briefings around the bill. An exemption is written for countries that take under 15 percent of Russian gas exports and that have already cut their purchases.

The tariff clause is not self-executing. Trump must choose to use it. That is the fact Indian officials have been repeating in private for months and that the Ministry of External Affairs put on the record on Thursday.

"As stated on several earlier occasions, India remains firmly committed to ensuring energy security for its 1.4 billion people," the MEA said. India would keep buying on the basis of market conditions and a diversified slate of suppliers. The ministry added that the issue had been raised at high level with U.S. interlocutors, that the risks to the bilateral relationship and to the world energy market had been "very clearly articulated," and that New Delhi would "take all necessary measures to protect its trade and economic interests."

House arithmetic tells its own story. Two hundred and three Republicans, 58 Democrats and one Independent voted yes. Seven Republicans and 152 Democrats voted no. The late senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina had pushed the package for more than a year. He died on 11 July. His sister, Senator Darline Graham, appointed to the seat, said the vote "meant so much to Lindsey." Senator Richard Blumenthal, after the Senate vote, addressed Beijing and New Delhi directly: "China and India, you better buy your oil and gas somewhere else."

India's Congress party used the House result to attack the Modi government. Party spokespeople said "appeasement never pays." That is domestic politics. The policy problem is simpler. After 2022 India became a large buyer of discounted Russian crude. Those barrels feed Indian refineries and, in some months, re-export markets. A 100 percent tariff on Indian goods would be a different instrument from a ban on the barrels themselves. It would hit pharmaceuticals, gems, engineering goods and services that have nothing to do with Urals crude.

The bill also widens Iran sanctions. That clause sits beside a separate White House claim this week that Tehran has been in contact about ending the war that began in February. The two tracks are not coordinated in public.

Zelenskyy welcomed the House vote after Russian missiles and drones struck eight Ukrainian regions. China's foreign ministry said secondary sanctions on Russian energy trade lack a U.N. Security Council mandate and amount to "long-arm jurisdiction." Beijing's statement arrived as Xi Jinping prepares to visit Washington next week. Trump has said he will greet Xi at the aircraft door.

For New Delhi the next date is the signature, not the vote. Once the bill is law, every Indian crude cargo from a Russian port becomes a potential exhibit in a tariff file. The MEA has already said it will diversify. Diversification takes months. The president's pen can move in a day.