The Graham Russia Sanctions Act Takes Effect on October 19 as Trump Strikes a Diesel Deal With Putin

On 18 September the President signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026. It passed the Senate 86 to 11 and the House 262 to 159. Its main provisions take effect on 19 October.

The law lets the President impose tariffs of up to 500% on Russian goods, and of up to 100% on the five largest buyers of Russian oil or gas, or the five biggest helpers in evading sanctions. It requires sanctions on Sberbank, VTB and Gazprombank, bans trading in some Russian securities, and adds sanctions on Rosatom, the state nuclear company, from 2028. Lifting the Russia measures requires a peace deal Ukraine accepts. The President can waive almost everything on national interest grounds.

Senator Graham, who pushed the bill for more than a year, died on 12 July. Congress named it for him.

The other direction

In the same weeks the White House moved the other way. On 9 October the President said Vladimir Putin had agreed to supply the US with more than 300,000 tons of diesel now and 500,000 tons in November, about 6 million barrels in all. Ukraine’s President Zelensky called it “a weak decision of strong partners.” No Treasury licence for the purchases has been published.

Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control has also issued a string of licences easing earlier sanctions. In October 2025 it put Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies, on its sanctions list. Since then it has repeatedly extended a licence letting Lukoil negotiate the sale of its foreign assets, most recently to 22 October. Lukoil signed a deal in January to sell its international business to Carlyle, but by early October nothing had closed. Earlier in 2026, as the war with Iran disrupted Gulf oil supply, OFAC licensed purchases of some Russian oil cargoes already at sea, first for Indian buyers only.

India and China

The tariff provisions point at Russia’s biggest customers. India’s imports of Russian crude fell after the Rosneft and Lukoil sanctions, from about 1.5 million barrels a day to under 1 million, then hit a record 2.47 million in July 2026 with the help of the US licences. In February the US had removed a 25% tariff on India tied to Russian oil, under a trade deal in which India agreed to stop buying. After the act passed, India said it would keep buying “through diversified sourcing.” China is the other large buyer.

The law doesn’t name countries. Who counts as a top-five buyer over the twelve months to September 2026, and whether the President applies tariffs or waives them, will become clear after 19 October.

Europe

The EU is moving on its own track. EU ambassadors endorsed a 22nd sanctions package with about 1,650 listings on 7 and 8 October, covered in our post on the package. The US hasn’t taken a public position on it.

Why it matters

The act is Congress’s clearest move in years to take sanctions policy back from the executive. Codifying the existing sanctions means a future President can’t simply lift them. But the waivers mean the near-term choices stay with the White House, which is negotiating with Moscow over Ukraine. Special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner met Ukrainian and European officials in Miami on 9 and 10 October to pitch a partial ceasefire on energy and grain. The first test is 19 October: tariffs on oil buyers, or a waiver while the talks continue.