Q&A with Senator Markwayne Mullin: Possible Sanctions on Russia

More than three years after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the two countries have taken initial steps, facilitated largely by the Trump administration, toward negotiating an end to the war. A second round of face-to-face talks took place Monday in Istanbul, Turkey.

Although President Trump has used his bully pulpit to push both Ukrainian President Zelenskyy and Russian President Putin to make concessions, in the interest of peace, there is general agreement among members of Congress that President Putin has done little to show that he is actually interested in ending the bloodshed. As a result, a large and bipartisan majority of the United States Senate has signed onto legislation that would impose what its sponsor, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), says would be “bone-breaking” sanctions of Russia.

In an interview with Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) on Monday, I asked him about the bill, the Sanctioning Russia Act of 2025: 

ALEX CAMERON: Senator Mullin, you and most of your colleagues are co-sponsors of the bill, tell me about it.

MULLIN: The point of the bill is to let Russia know that we're serious. We put this out, I don't know, several months ago, and almost immediately, Lindsey (Graham) and I got contacted, by, you know, the Russian Embassy. And they were, like, ‘Hey, we'd like to sit down and visit with you and talk to you about it.’ We made it very clear we're extremely serious about this, that the Senate and Congress is primed and ready to go, that we want to end of this war. The president has made it very clear that he wants to end the killing. and he made it very clear just the other day (in a post on social media) that Putin is on thin ice. And so, either these peace talks move forward, or we will move forward with the sanctions (legislation) and it will pass. It'll pass the House and it'll pass the Senate, and the president will sign it. At the same time, we're working very close with the White House. The president is engaged. Whenever he feels like the timing is right, meaning that he's done everything he could to get Putin's attention, he's tried to negotiate in good faith…and at the time that he feels like It's time to put the sanctions on, we are primed and ready to go.

CAMERON: Speaking to reporters last Friday, Sen. Graham indicated the bill would move in the Senate this week. Are you saying that Leader Thune has decided to hold off until the president gives the okay?

MULLIN: We were prepared to move the bill last week when Trump came out and said what he did. And we immediately had a conversation with the White House, talking about what's our next step, what he wants to do. They feel like that, let's give (peace talks) another shot before we move the bill.

CAMERON: So, the way I understand it, the bill would impose 500% tariffs on China and any nation that buys oil or gas from Russia?

MULLIN: Right now, you have China who is buying refined products at about a 30% discount. So, about 70% of what the market is. And so, in some aspects, China is taking advantage of Russia right now because they're buying very reduced petroleum and refined products from Russia. At the same time, they're using ghost ships to run around the sanctions. And so India is part of this, China is part of this--and part of the tariffs negotiations we're talking about would stop all this. So, if we can get a deal finalized with India, if we can get a deal finalized with China, it will work the same thing -- if they're not able to buy these products when we have sanctions, or there's an agreement between the United States and our allies that we're doing business with… So then [Russia will] have to go to a much lower bidder, where a lot of this stuff would probably end up in Africa and at a much cheaper cost. And if they choose to just to do business with us, then there'll be a 500% tariff on the products that they're going to be bringing in the United States, or 500% tariff that they're going to be buying off those products going into there, that they're buying from Russia into that country, basically to cripple their economy. I mean, Russia has two things working for them, because they're not producing a lot of stuff other than natural gas or refined products and raw--crude oil, and rare earth minerals…and you got to export those, so if if we can keep those exports from happening, it literally destroys the Ruble, which is their currency.

CAMERON: President Trump certainly gets credit for getting the two countries to sit at the table together, but there are many who feel Putin is playing Trump and dragging this out. What do you think?

MULLIN: Well, I think a lot of people will misjudge the president. But if you misjudge him, you're doing it at your own peril. I think a lot of people also misunderstand American politics, that they think that they can just wait it out and the tide will turn and the American people will get tired of it. They don't understand the Trump base and the American people where they're at right now with this. I think what Putin is probably trying to do is trying to play the long game because at some point, you know, Ukraine is going to run out of either people or money. and they're gonna have to come to us for the money or for the munitions to go forward. I think that's where his point is. Before it gets to that point, though, what they don't understand is the American people, including the people they elected, which is Congress, we'll just put the sanctions on Russia. So either they're going to negotiate in good faith where we don't just have a ceasefire, but where we actually stop the killing, that's where the president is. We don't--we're not talking about a ceasefire, we're talking about a peace deal where this killing stops. Either that happens or we will put these crippling sanctions on Russia -- and it will be one or the other. It's not...there's no C option here.