US Congress approves new sanctions against Russia, tariffs of up to 100%

On September 17, 2026, the US House of Representatives approved a package of sanctions against Russia and its allies linked to the war in Ukraine, according to Le Monde. The vote registered 262 in favor and 159 against. The bill had already been adopted by the Senate with a wider majority, 86 votes to 11.

The text, according to Le Monde, targets the so-called Russian “shadow fleet” for the first time, the network of oil tankers used to circumvent Western sanctions on crude oil. The measure also authorizes the US president to impose tariffs of up to 100% on imports from the five main buyers of Russian gas and oil, a measure that shifts the target from the banking system to the hydrocarbon trade channel.

Tagesschau clarifies the mechanism of the exemption provided for in the text: countries that import less than 15% of Russian gas exports and that adopt significant measures to further reduce such imports are excluded from the tariffs. The wording leaves room for interpretation as to which countries actually fall within the threshold, a detail that the measure will have to clarify at the implementation stage, and which will in practice determine how many of the main buyers remain exposed to the new tariffs.

The two available sources — the German and French outlets — report the vote as journalistic coverage, without direct access to the full approved text. It is not currently clear which third countries will actually be affected by the new tariffs, nor within what timeframe the measures will become operational: Congress approved the general framework, but the implementation details — import thresholds, timelines, possible case-by-case exemptions — remain to be defined in the coming weeks.

The measure adds to an already extensive sanctions framework, at a time when Congress has chosen to intervene directly on the trade channel linked to Russian hydrocarbons, historically the most difficult to hit with direct sanctions on the banking system. The double approval, in the House and the Senate, with wide margins in both chambers, signals bipartisan support for the measure that goes beyond the more usual political divisions in Washington.