President Donald Trump has thrown his weight behind a sweeping bipartisan bill that could impose 500% secondary tariffs on buyers of Russian oil if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t do a ceasefire deal with Ukraine.

Trump has become increasingly “angry” at what he sees as foot-dragging by the Kremlin after Putin agreed in principle to a 30-day ceasefire deal and a new Black Sea grain deal, but loaded both agreements with conditions and refuses to implement either agreement until his conditions are met.

That will be hard. The grain deal included a demand for significant sanctions relief, including lifting financial sanctions on Russian Agricultural bank (Rosselkhozbank), which Trump apparently agreed to, but is impossible to do without the cooperation of the EU, which has refused.

The Trump administration has made it clear that it wants a quick resolution to the conflict and while no timeline has been set for the talks that kicked off in Riyadh on February 18, Trump has said publicly that he wants a ceasefire by Easter.

However, due to Putin’s insistence on conditions, the talks are bogging down. Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview at the weekend that the talks are close to collapsing and Grigory Karasin, a member of the Riyadh negotiating team also said last week he doesn’t expect a deal to be concluded this year.

Adopting a carrot and big stick approach to all his negotiations, Trump is backing an initiative in Congress to impose punitive tariffs on countries buying Russian oil, gas, uranium and other commodities.

A group of 50 senators — evenly split between Republicans and Democrats — is backing a bill that would introduce secondary duties of up to 500% on nations purchasing Russian energy. The bill also includes measures targeting Russian sovereign debt and the so-called "shadow fleet" of tankers used to evade sanctions. These tariffs would put China and India in the front line, which have become Russia’s biggest customers for oil that used to be exported to Europe. The EU could also be caught in the crossfire as it is a major importer of Russian LNG.

The legislation, spearheaded by ardent Ukraine-supporter Senators Lindsey Graham (Republican) and Richard Blumenthal (Democrat), marks a rare moment of bipartisan consensus in an otherwise polarised Congress, The Bell reports.

“We share President Trump's frustration with Russia when it comes to achieving a ceasefire, and support his desire to achieve a lasting, just, and dignified peace,” the two senators said in a joint statement.

The US could also impose a ban on American investors purchasing Russian government bonds or investing in government-linked entities.

A similar version of the bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives, also with bipartisan support. The Senate version is already nearing the threshold for passage. With 50 senators signed on, only one more vote is needed to reach a simple majority. To overcome a potential filibuster, 60 votes would be required — a target that now appears within reach.

No date has been set for a vote on the bills the threat of which has already entered the diplomatic dialogue. Trump is due to speak by phone with Putin this week, and will also make his first foreign trip to KSA in May. Riyadh has become a key venue for talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the United States. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) is playing middle man between Washington and Moscow as well as helping to broker a potential deal between the US and Iran that is underway.

Trump has signalled that he views sanctions as leverage rather than policy, whereas the EU has been adamant that sanctions on Russia will only be lifted once the Armed Forces of Russia (AFR) has completely withdrawn from Ukraine’s territory completely.

The new sanctions are a stick in the negotiating process, but Trump remains very interested in doing business with Russia and is eyeing the hydrocarbon deposits in the Arctic in particular.

Trump is prepared to go well beyond the Biden administration which imposed the harshest ever oil sanctions on Russia at the end of last year as well as increasingly effective US financial sanctions, but limited its actions for fear of causing spikes in energy prices. Trump considered Russia’s shadow fleet an “easy target” and views secondary sanctions as a de facto embargo on Russian energy exports.

The Kremlin has not commented on the prospects of the new sanctions but says it is in regular contact with the US side and talks are ongoing.