Turner says Russia sanctions bill should be part of Graham’s legacy

Republican Rep. Mike Turner said passing the Russia sanctions bill should be “one of the legacies” of Lindsey Graham, a pointed appeal after the four-term South Carolina senator died Saturday at 71 following a brief and sudden illness. The remark put a personal edge on a fight that had already become a test of whether Congress would keep pressure on Moscow over the war in Ukraine.

The measure at the center of that fight is the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, introduced in April 2025 by Graham and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal. It was built to go beyond direct penalties on Russia and target third countries that keep buying Russian energy, with earlier versions calling for a 500% tariff on imports from countries purchasing Russian oil, gas, uranium, petroleum products or petrochemicals.

Support for the bill widened over time, with reports putting its backing at 85 senators. Lawmakers revived the effort in May 2026 after it had stalled for more than a year, as sponsors pushed to refresh the language and broaden the coalition around it. The scale of the trade that fuels Moscow’s war machine helped shape that strategy, with reports saying China and India account for roughly 70% of Russia’s energy trade.

The latest breakthrough came on July 10, when Graham and Blumenthal said they had reached an agreement with the Trump administration to move the updated legislation forward. The office of Graham also said the revived push included Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Roger Wicker, signaling that the bill had begun to gather the kind of bipartisan backing that could make a Senate vote possible even after Graham’s death.

Graham had returned from a trip to Ukraine shortly before he died, underscoring how closely he tied the sanctions campaign to the battlefield inside that country. Tributes quickly followed from President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, but the practical question now is whether those expressions of respect translate into enough votes to send the bill through the Senate without Graham personally driving it. Turner’s call framed the issue plainly: if the measure passes, it would stand not just as a policy win, but as the signature unfinished fight of Graham’s Senate career.