United States Senator Lindsey Graham said that the US must ‘crush’ the Russian economy by penalising countries that buy oil from them.

If this were to happen, the move would also affect India, which has lately been a bone of contention for Trump.

In a post on X, Graham said, “My advice to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio is to convince Putin that if this war does not come to an end, we will crush the Russian economy by going after countries that buy their cheap oil and gas.”

The comments by Graham appear lopsided, as Russian President Vladimir Putin noted during Alaska’s press conference with Trump on August 16 that bilateral trade between the two nations has increased by 20 percent since Trump’s reinstatement as president.

“Incidentally, when the new administration came to power, bilateral trade started to grow. It’s still very symbolic. Still, we have a growth of 20%. As I’ve said, we have a lot of dimensions for joint work. It is clear that the US and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential,” Putin had said.

“Russia and the US can offer each other so much in trade, digital, high-tech, and in space exploration. We see that Arctic cooperation is also very possible in our international context, for example, between the Far East of Russia and the West Coast of the US. Overall, it’s very important for our countries to turn the page, to go back to cooperation,” he added.

The comments came as Trump, in an interview with Fox News, said that Russia lost India as an oil client while discussing the economic aspect of Russian President Vladimir Putin coming to the table for talks.

When asked about the economic side of Putin’s negotiations, Trump referred to India’s role, saying, “Well, they lost an oil client, so to speak, which is India, which was doing about 40% of the oil. China, as you know, is doing a lot…and if I did secondary sanctions, it would be devastating from their standpoint. If I have to do it, I’ll do it; maybe I won’t have to do it,” during the interview aboard Air Force One.

Trump’s comments follow his recent decision to impose a 50% tariff on Indian imports, citing New Delhi’s oil trade with Russia.