US President Donald Trump has “greenlit the bipartisan Russia Sanctions Bill” that envisages “at least 500 per cent” duty on countries like India, China and Brazil that do business with Russia, threatening a further strain on Indo-US ties.

The revelation that Trump has given the go-ahead for the bill — which has been in the making for over a year — came on Wednesday from the draft legislation’s main author, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, following his meeting with the President.

“This bill would give President Trump tremendous leverage against countries like China, India and Brazil to incentivise them to stop buying the cheap Russian oil that provides the financing for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s bloodbath against Ukraine. I look forward to a strong bipartisan vote, hopefully as early as next week,” Graham said.

Referring to the work he has been doing on this bill with Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic Senator from Connecticut, he said: “This will be well-timed, as Ukraine is making concessions for peace and Putin is all talk, continuing to kill the innocent. This bill will allow President Trump to punish those countries who buy cheap Russian oil fuelling Putin’s war machine.”

The uncertainty over the tariffs shook up Indian markets on Thursday as benchmark shares logged their steepest one‑day fall in over four months. (See Business)

Graham had earlier, too, expressed optimism about the bill’s passage.

He had in a television interview in June described the bill as an “economic bunker buster” against China, India and Russia.

“I think that bill’s gonna pass… we’re going to give the President a waiver. It will be a tool in his tool box to bring Putin to the table,” he had said.

A Reuters report from Washington said that Senate and House of Representatives leaders had held off a vote on the legislation as Trump has preferred to impose tariffs on goods from India, the world’s second-leading buyer of Russian oil after China.

“A US official told Reuters in November that Trump would sign the legislation if it passed, but would insist on specific language ensuring he remained in control ofthe sanctions,” the news agency said.

The bill was introduced in both Houses of the US Congress on January 4 last year, and enjoys bipartisan support in the Senate and the House of Representatives. It has 84 co-sponsors in the Senate and 151 in the House.

Apart from visa and property-blocking sanctions on Russian individuals, including Putin, it mandates that the “President must increase the rate of duty on all goods and services imported into the United States from countries that knowingly engage in the exchange of Russian-origin uranium and petroleum products to at least 500 per cent relative to the value of such goods and services”.

It also says the department of treasury must impose property-blocking sanctions on any financial institution organised under Russian law and owned wholly or partly by Russia, and any financial institution that engages in transactions with those entities.

Graham had earlier this week said the Indian ambassador to the US had told him in a private conversation that India had reduced oil purchases from Russia and urged him to ask Trump to “relieve the tariff”.

Since August last year, the US has imposed an additional 25 per cent tariff on imports from India to America to try and pressure New Delhi into cutting back on oil purchases from Russia.