Putin Has a New Problem: Lindsey Graham's Legacy
Newsweek · C · trust 51/100
0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. There’s no doubt the news of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s sudden passing made a sweet melody as it echoed through Kremlin corridors this past weekend.
The GOP stalwart, who died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 71, was among Washington’s most fervent critics of Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, and one of the few able to reason with Donald Trump over providing continued support to Kyiv.
Putin will undoubtedly be glad to see him gone.
Yet, even from beyond the grave, Graham may prove capable of helping Ukraine vanquish its imperial neighbor.
Hours before his death, the senator told reporters he was ready to unveil the final text of a bill designed to cripple the Russian war effort by choking oil and gas profits flowing into Moscow’s coffers—one that has been more than a year in the making.
“We’ve reached an agreement with the White House on a version of the Russian sanctions bill that they will support. It means it’s going to become law,” Graham told reporters on Friday.
This week, a White House official confirmed that Trump intends to green-light the legislation, suggesting that Graham’s dogged determination to strike the principal source of Putin’s war funds could finally pay off.
“For Ukraine, his death is a significant loss because very few Republicans had his access to Trump or his ability to frame support for Ukraine as part of a broader ‘peace through strength’ agenda,” said Myroslava Gongadze, a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council with firsthand insight into Washington's national security and congressional debates.
“But there are already voices on Capitol Hill calling for the Russia sanctions bill to be passed in Lindsey Graham's name… that would be a strong signal that Congress remains committed to increasing pressure on Russia.”
Graham’s face creased into a warm smile as he embraced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the center of Kyiv on Friday.
The pair greeted one another with a mutual affection typically reserved for old friends, exchanging hearty handshakes before flashing thumbs-up and toothy grins to the cavalcade of photographers gathered to receive them. Less than 48 hours later, the longtime senator was dead.
Graham’s visit to the Ukrainian capital was a fitting final act in his storied political career.
Far from anomalous, it was his 10th since Russian troops rolled across the border in February 2022. No senator from either side of the aisle has made more frequent wartime visits to the embattled country.
His Sanctioning Russia Act , introduced in collaboration with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, would hand Trump the power to impose what Blumenthal has called "sledgehammer" tariffs—as steep as 500 percent—on countries still buying Russian oil, gas and uranium. China and India, which together account for the vast majority of Russia's energy exports, are the unmistakable targets.
It would also go after Russia's so-called shadow fleet, the tankers that disguise the origin of Russian oil under false flags to dodge existing sanctions.
Despite gathering dozens of co-sponsors from both parties since its introduction in January 2025, the bill has stalled repeatedly amid pushback from the Trump administration. Each time it stalled, Graham refused to let it die, quietly reworking the text and rallying additional support to convince the White House.
In Ukraine last week, Graham lauded a breakthrough, claiming that he was confident in the Trump administration’s support and would make a beeline for Washington to bring the bill to the floor.
He will never see the fruits of his labor, but Graham’s co-sponsors seem fully committed to ensuring his work was not in vain.
"When we last spoke, he was as enthusiastic and exuberant as I've ever seen him," Blumenthal said of his final conversation with Graham in an interview with NPR.
“These sanctions would be pivotal in getting Putin to the peace table… [Graham’s] death, tragic as it is, will provide an impetus to President Trump and my Republican colleagues to pass the Russia sanctions bill.”
Fellow co-sponsor, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, was clearer still, announcing there could be "no more fitting memorial to Lindsey, his legacy, or the causes he fought for, than to pass this legislation."
Graham’s support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression was resolute even in the decade before the 2022 full-scale invasion.
In 2013, he voiced support for pro-EU protesters during Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution, and in September 2014 issued a scathing indictment of then-President Barack Obama’s refusal to provide Kyiv with military aid after Russia annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed separatists attacked in the Donbas region.
But for all of Graham’s drumbeating over the Ukrainian cause, he has delivered little in the way of hard results.
On several occasions, the senator claimed the White House was ready to accept his bill on Russian sanctions, only to hit a wall when Trump's mood on Moscow swung from confrontational to conciliatory. Each time, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune had to keep the bill off the floor, affording Graham another opportunity to tinker.
In 2022, he also introduced a bill which seeks to officially designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism—a move that would see Russia join a very select club of Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
The political weight of formally lumping Moscow in with America's most isolated adversaries would make for a very powerful symbol indeed on the international stage. It was placed on the legislative calendar last October, but appears to be languishing low down the list of priorities.
This absence of concrete legislative outcomes leaves many Ukrainians skeptical that Washington will act on the commitments Graham made prior to his death.
“Especially after Trump’s…
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