Trump warns severe sanctions as US pushes 500% tariffs on countries trading with Russia

US President Donald Trump has warned that any country that does business with Russia will be “very severely sanctioned”, as his administration and Republican lawmakers push ahead with tough legislation targeting Moscow.

Responding to questions from reporters on Sunday on whether it was time for Congress to pass measures aimed at pressuring Russia and President Vladimir Putin, Trump said, “I hear they're doing that, and that’s okay with me.”

“They're passing legislation... the Republicans are putting in legislation... very tough sanctioning... on any country doing business with Russia. They may add Iran to that... I suggested it,” he said.

“So any country that does business with Russia will be very severely sanctioned. We may add Iran to the formula,” Trump reiterated.

The Trump administration has imposed 50 per cent tariffs on India, among the highest in the world, including 25 per cent levies for its purchases of Russian energy.

A bill introduced by Senator Lindsey Graham has proposed a 500 per cent tariff on secondary purchase and reselling of Russian oil. The proposal has near-unanimous backing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Graham and Senator Richard Blumenthal have jointly introduced the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025, which seeks to impose secondary tariffs and sanctions on “countries that continue to fund Putin’s barbaric war in Ukraine". The proposed legislation has 85 cosponsors in the Senate.

“President Trump and his team have made a powerful move, implementing a new approach to end this bloodbath between Russia and Ukraine... However, the ultimate hammer to bring about the end of this war will be tariffs against countries, like China, India and Brazil, that prop up Putin’s war machine by purchasing cheap Russian oil and gas,” Graham and Blumenthal had said in a joint statement in July.