House Speaker Mike Johnson backs efforts to sanction Russia ‘as strongly as we can'
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) threw his support behind renewed congressional efforts to sanction the Kremlin over Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal war against Ukraine.
'There's many members of Congress that want us to sanction Russia as strongly as we can,' Johnson told reporters on Monday. 'And I'm an advocate of that.'
The House speaker's support for legislation punishing the Russian regime comes amid a bipartisan push in the Senate to impose 'bone-breaking sanctions' on Russia.
3 Johnson expressed support for passing sanctions legislation against Russia on Monday.
AP
Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) have co-sponsored a measure in the upper chamber that would slap a 500% tariff on any country purchasing Russian energy products.
Graham expects the Senate to 'start moving' the bill forward this week.
'You will see congressional action,' the South Carolina Republican said during a press conference in Ukraine last week.
Like Johnson, Graham noted that 'there are House members that are ready' to pass the sanctions bill and get it to President Trump's desk for his signature.
It's unclear if Trump would support severe sanctions on Moscow amid Russia-Ukraine peace talks that have seemingly failed to gain any traction.
3 Graham met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv over the weekend.
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE/AFP via Getty Images
'We are in conversations with the White House, obviously, about that subject and that issue,' Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told reporters on Monday.
'There's a high level of interest here in the Senate, on both sides of the aisle and moving on it, and it very well could be something that we would take up in this work period,' Thune added. 'Obviously, we're working with the White House to try and ensure that what we do and when we do it works well with the negotiations that they've got underway.'
3 The Senate bill would impose 500% tariffs on countries that purchase energy from Russia.
via REUTERS
The Graham-Blumenthal bill – 'Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025' – has more than 80 co-sponsors in the Senate.
'The bill would put Russia on a trade island,' Graham wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed last week. 'The consequences of its barbaric invasion must be made real to those that prop it up. If China or India stopped buying cheap oil, Mr. Putin's war machine would grind to a halt.'
'I'm hoping for the best, but when it comes to the thug in Moscow, we should all prepare for more of the same.'
The bill is currently under consideration by the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.
Trump has expressed mounting frustrations with Putin's refusal to curtail strikes against Ukraine, but has stopped short of announcing tougher sanctions on the regime despite having threatened them earlier this month.
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