Newsweek28%
Putin Has a New Problem: Lindsey Graham’s Legacy 18%
By David Averre0%
7/14/2026, 5:17:26 PM
BS Summary: This article contains 1 faulty reasoning type, including Framing Effect, with Framing Effect as the most egregious example at 1.5% saturation with 25 hits. Analysis detected 25 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,652 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 33% and a BS Rank of 18% (13,034 of 15,741 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 82.80% of the article peer group.
There’s no doubt the news of Republican Senator Lindsey Graham’s sudden passing made a sweet melody as it echoed through Kremlin corridors this past weekend.
The GOP stalwart, who died suddenly on Saturday at the age of 71, was among Washington’s most fervent critics of Russia’s brutal war on Ukraine, and one of the few able to reason with Donald Trump over providing continued support to Kyiv.
Putin will undoubtedly be glad to see him gone.
Yet, even from beyond the grave, Graham may prove capable of helping Ukraine vanquish its imperial neighbor.
Hours before his death, the senator told reporters he was ready to unveil the final text of a bill designed to cripple the Russian war effort by choking oil and gas profits flowing into Moscow’s coffers—one that has been more than a year in the making.
“We’ve reached an agreement with the White House on a version of the Russian sanctions bill that they will support.
It means it’s going to become law,” Graham told reporters on Friday.
This week, a White House official confirmed that Trump intends to green-light the legislation, suggesting that Graham’s dogged determination to strike the principal source of Putin’s war funds could finally pay off.
“For Ukraine, his death is a significant loss because very few Republicans had his access to Trump or his ability to frame support for Ukraine as part of a broader ‘peace through strength’ agenda,” Myroslava Gongadze, a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council with firsthand insight into Washington's national security and congressional debates, told <em>Newsweek</em>.
“But there are already voices on Capitol Hill calling for the Russia sanctions bill to be passed in Lindsey Graham's name… that would be a strong signal that Congress remains committed to increasing pressure on Russia.”
Graham’s face creased into a warm smile as he embraced Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the center of Kyiv on Friday.
The pair greeted one another with a mutual affection typically reserved for old friends, exchanging hearty handshakes before flashing thumbs-up and toothy grins to the cavalcade of photographers gathered to receive them.
Less than 48 hours later, the longtime senator was dead.
Graham’s visit to the Ukrainian capital was a fitting final act in his storied political career.
Far from anomalous, it was his 10th since Russian troops rolled across the border in February 2022.
No senator from either side of the aisle has made more frequent wartime visits to the embattled country.
His Sanctioning Russia Act, introduced in collaboration with Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, would hand Trump the power to impose what Blumenthal has called "sledgehammer" tariffs—as steep as 500 percent—on countries still buying Russian oil, gas and uranium.
China and India, which together account for the vast majority of Russia's energy exports, are the unmistakable targets.
It would also go after Russia's so-called shadow fleet, the tankers that disguise the origin of Russian oil under false flags to dodge existing sanctions.
Despite gathering dozens of co-sponsors from both parties since its introduction in January 2025, the bill has stalled repeatedly amid pushback from the Trump administration.
Each time it stalled, Graham refused to let it die, quietly reworking the text and rallying additional support to convince the White House.
In Ukraine last week, Graham lauded a breakthrough, claiming that he was confident in the Trump administration’s support and would make a beeline for Washington to bring the bill to the floor.
He will never see the fruits of his labor, but Graham’s co-sponsors seem fully committed to ensuring his work was not in vain.
“When we last spoke, he was as enthusiastic and exuberant as I've ever seen him," Blumenthal said of his final conversation with Graham in an interview with NPR.
“These sanctions would be pivotal in getting Putin to the peace table… [Graham’s] death, tragic as it is, will provide an impetus to President Trump and my Republican colleagues to pass the Russia sanctions bill.”
Fellow co-sponsor, Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, was clearer still, announcing there could be "no more fitting memorial to Lindsey, his legacy, or the causes he fought for, than to pass this legislation."
**Plenty of Bark, Not Enough Bite?
**
Graham’s support for Ukraine in the face of Russian aggression was resolute even in the decade before the 2022 full-scale invasion.
In 2013, he voiced support for pro-EU protesters during Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution, and in September 2014 issued a scathing indictment of then-President Barack Obama’s refusal to provide Kyiv with military aid after Russia annexed Crimea, and Russian-backed separatists attacked in the Donbas region.
But for all of Graham’s drumbeating over the Ukrainian cause, he has delivered little in the way of hard results.
On several occasions, the senator claimed the White House was ready to accept his bill on Russian sanctions, only to hit a wall when Trump's mood on Moscow swung from confrontational to conciliatory.
Each time, Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune had to keep the bill off the floor, affording Graham another opportunity to tinker.
In 2022, he also introduced a bill which seeks to officially designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism—a move that would see Russia join a very select club of Iran, Cuba and North Korea.
The political weight of formally lumping Moscow in with America's most isolated adversaries would make for a very powerful symbol indeed on the international stage.
It was placed on the legislative calendar last October, but appears to be languishing low down the list of priorities.
This absence of concrete legislative outcomes leaves many Ukrainians skeptical that Washington will act on the commitments Graham made prior to his death.
“Especially after Trump’s inauguration, Senator Graham was seen as a huge backer of Ukraine in the hostile environment of Washington.
Even when there was the row between Zelensky and Trump, Lindsey stood by Ukraine and did not shy away from pushing the administration to support Kyiv,” Orysia Lutsevych, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia Programme and head of the Ukraine Forum at the Chatham House think tank, told <em>Newsweek</em>.
“But his bill for stronger sanctions against Russia—we still don’t know if that’s actually going to happen, and he has not actually been able to deliver any bills or policies.
Was Lindsey influential, or was he simply cushioning Trump’s inadequacy on Russia-Ukraine policy?”
For now, the will to pass Graham's bill seems unwavering among his colleagues in the Senate, who frame the act as a tribute to his memory and a fitting cap to his political legacy.
As always, though, Trump could throw a wrench in the works.
In a call with CNN's Jake Tapper on Sunday, the president paid tribute to Graham as a 'tough cookie... who got along with everybody\", only to question his commitment to ending the war moments later.
"I wanted to see the war with Ukraine end, very quickly.
I think he was more into keeping it going frankly, he was very militant on having to do with that."
Not exactly a ringing endorsement of Graham's last act. <br>
**Can Anyone Fill The Graham Vacuum?
**
Though Graham’s rhetoric did not necessarily manifest direct legislative rewards for Ukraine, he was unquestionably the most influential Republican voice advocating for Zelensky's best interests.
In an administration criticized for its inaction over Russia’s war on Ukraine, Graham’s greatest virtue was his ability to keep Kyiv’s plight at the center of the Republican conversation and make supporting Ukraine more palatable to President Trump.
Now, the greatest concern for Ukrainians is the lack of a clear heir apparent to continue the late senator’s legacy.
On Monday, Graham’s sister Darline Graham Nordone was chosen by Republican South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster to serve out the remainder of his term.
Speaking at a news conference with McMaster on Monday, Nordone delivered a tribute to her late brother and vowed to "finish some of his important work”.
But she cannot hope to wield the same caliber of influence, and the Republican Party will hold a special primary next month to select Graham's replacement ahead of the November midterms.
In the House, Republican Representative Brian Fitzpatrick stands out as an ardent supporter of Ukraine, having recently collaborated with other sympathetic members of his party to guide the Ukraine Support Act safely through the chamber—but is powerless to influence proceedings in the Senate.
“I don't see a single successor,” said Gongadze.
“In the Senate, figures such as Thom Tillis, Jim Risch, Roger Wicker can provide leadership, but none has Graham's unique political relationship with President Trump.”
It is that ability to communicate directly with Trump that Kyiv will miss the most.
Graham toed a line like no other—he sustained well-publicized bust-ups with the president, yet unlike many of his colleagues, seemed capable of maintaining a good working relationship and did not incur Trump’s wrath.
The loss goes beyond Graham's reputation as a shrewd political operator, though.
He belonged to a dwindling cohort of the American political establishment with more than three decades of military service and a personal understanding of European and Middle Eastern security issues.
During his sprawling career in the legal arm of the United States Air Force, he served four years as the outfit's chief prosecutor in Europe and as a senior legal adviser in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The absence of such vital lived experience may prove costlier to Ukraine's cause in Washington than the loss of any single vote.
“Without Graham we’re losing the champion, and from what we see from the outside there’s no consistency in Washington,” Lutsevych said.
“Everything under Trump is so volatile and impermanent, so it’s difficult to speak on whether anyone besides Graham can operate effectively with a chaotic White House.
The younger generation of congressmen and senators is more theoretical and isn’t as understanding of what war really takes.
"Will anyone replace that voice, or will it just be gone?"
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