GOP Senators Renew Push for More Russia Sanctions
Two Republican senators took to the Senate floor this week to reiterate their support for increasing sanctions on Russia to pressure it to end its war against Ukraine.
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Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Sept. 10 that additional sanctions should target Russia’s oil production to deprive Moscow of revenue it needs for its war machine. “The surest way of ending the war and securing a lasting peace will be a united West showing [Russian President Vladimir] Putin that he cannot win,” Cornyn asserted.
Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Sept. 9 that Russia “barely has the economic capacity to continue bombarding Ukraine.” Putin will end his attacks “only if his war machine begins running out of funds, and we can help accomplish that” with sanctions, Wicker argued.
Cornyn and Wicker are both co-sponsors of a bill Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., introduced in April that would impose a wide range of sanctions on Russia and its supporters if Moscow fails to make peace (see 2504020003). The proposal also would place tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy.
While Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., also has endorsed the legislation, he has held off on scheduling a Senate floor vote amid President Donald Trump's attempts to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough (see 2507090023). However, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said Sept. 10 that Congress should move forward with the Graham-Blumenthal bill because peace negotiations are not advancing, evidenced by Russia's stepped-up air strikes on Ukraine and its drone incursion into Polish airspace.
"At some point, I think we have to punch back," Tillis told International Trade Today. "And I think that point's now."