US must ‘crush' Russian economy by penalising countries buying oil from them: Trump aide
If this were to happen, the move would directly affect India, which is a significant buyer of Russian crude.
In a post on X, Graham stated, 'My advice to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is to convince Putin that if this war does not come to an end, we will crush the Russian economy by going after countries that buy their cheap oil and gas.'
Graham's comments appear to conflict with those of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said during a press conference with Trump in Alaska on 15 August that bilateral trade between the two nations had increased by 20% since Trump's reinstatement as President.
"Russia and the US can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high-tech, and in space exploration. We see that Arctic cooperation is also very possible in our international context, for example, between the far east of Russia and the west coast of the US. Overall, it's very important for our countries to turn the page, to go back to cooperation," Russian President Putin said.
The comments came as Trump said in an interview with Fox News that Russia had lost India as an oil client. He made this statement while discussing the economic aspect of Russian President Vladimir Putin coming to the table for talks, ANI reported.
"Well, they lost an oil client so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40% of the oil, China as you know is doing a lot...and If I did secondary sanctions, it would be devastating from their standpoint. If I have to do it, I'll do it, maybe I won't have to do it," Trump said during the interview.
Trump's comments follow his recent imposition of a 50% tariff on Indian imports, citing New Delhi's crude oil purchases from Russia.
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