US Senate to vote on bill to tighten sanctions against Russia – media

The US Senate will hold a procedural vote on a bill to strengthen sanctions against Russia on Tuesday, July 28. The document, co-authored by Senator Lindsey Graham, could be put to a final vote as early as next week.

This is reported by Axios.

According to the publication, Democrats have informed Republicans of their readiness to support consideration of the bill in the coming days. The initiative already has more than 60 co-sponsors and has become one of the few examples of bipartisan support in the Senate.

Initially, the document envisaged the introduction of 500% secondary tariffs against countries that continue to trade with Russia. Later, the authors of the bill reduced the maximum tariff level to 100% and limited the number of countries against which the US president could apply such measures.

At the request of US President Donald Trump, sanctions against Iran were also included in the document. According to Axios, this decision did not cause significant objections among senators.

Senate Republican Leader John Thune said his faction supports the Iran amendment. At the same time, some Democrats oppose expanding the president’s authority to impose tariffs, but do not have enough votes to block the bill.

Recall that the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the European Union (Coreper) reached a political agreement on the 21st package of sanctions against Russia .

It was previously reported that on July 15 and 22, EU countries failed to reach an agreement on the 21st package of sanctions. The main obstacle remained the position of Greece , which insisted on extending the permit for the re-export of Russian liquefied natural gas to third countries.