India watches closely as Trump endorses sanctions bill that could impose a 500% tariff

India is closely watching the developments in the U.S., as it might be caught in the crosshairs of U.S. President Donald Trump’s hardened stance towards Russia’s continued conflict with Ukraine. Trump has alluded to strongly supporting a sanctions bill designed to put an untenable amount of pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to put an end to the ongoing conflict with Ukraine.

The proposed piece of legislation—called the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025—also includes a highly contested provision that would enable the imposition of a 500% tariff on imports from countries, including India, that continue to buy Russian oil and uranium. However, the bill also allows the President of the United States to grant a one-time reprieve of 180 days to a particular country, “if the President determines that such a waiver is in the national security interests of the United States”.

“I’m looking. It’s totally my option. They pass it totally at my option, and to terminate totally at my option. And I’m looking at it very strongly,” Trump told reporters at a cabinet meeting. According to a report by the Associated Press, the president expressed his frustration with Putin prolonging the conflict. The report also adds that Trump has directed the U.S. Department of Defence to take a harder line stance against Russia by sending more weapons to Ukraine.

Influential U.S. Senator Lindsay Graham has publicly pushed the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025. “I’ve got 84 co-sponsors for a Russian sanctions bill that is an economic bunker buster against China, India, and Russia for Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. I think that bill’s going to pass,” Graham said in an interview on Sunday. The bill will also place expanded sanctions on Russian government institutions, businesses, and policymakers. “To China and India: if you continue to prop up Putin’s war machine, you’ll have nobody to blame but yourself,” Graham wrote on X in June.

According to the data published by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, India was the second-largest buyer of Russian fossil fuels. An estimated €4.2 billion worth of fossil fuels were imported from Russia in May, with 72% of it being crude oil. The bill has been read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. It will subsequently need to be passed by the Senate and the House of Representatives, and then signed by Trump before it becomes a law. However, Graham has been exhorting to expedite the passing of the bill.