Senate OKs Graham Russia-Iran Sanctions Bill, Green-Lights 100 % Tariffs on Top Russian-Oil Buyers

Congress has not threatened third-country buyers this directly since the 1974 Jackson-Vanik amendment tied trade to Soviet emigration policy; even that, unlike today’s bill, stopped short of blanket tariffs on all goods. The move fits a century-long arc in which Washington increasingly weaponises access to the U.S. market—from the 1930 Smoot-Hawley tariff wall to the 2018–25 trade-war cycles—blurring commerce and foreign policy. By pushing sanctions enforcement into a tariff regime and routing authority through USTR to survive the Supreme Court’s February 2026 curb on IEEPA powers, Congress is writing a new template for coercive economics just as Russia, China and India accelerate non-dollar clearing systems (CIPS, BRICS pay) that could, over decades, erode the leverage the bill depends on. Whether this vote ultimately starves the Kremlin or merely hastens the fragmentation of the post-1945 dollar trading order will matter far more in 2126 than the short-term headlines about ‘crippling’ sanctions.