Ninety of 100 US senators support a new sanctions package against Russia, Senator Lindsey Graham is championing the bill, and yet the vote remains stalled. Gen. David Petraeus, former CIA director and former commander of US Central Command, said the current moment demands action - because Russia is actively helping Iran target American facilities and Gulf civilian infrastructure.

Russian assistance to Iran constitutes "the best evidence yet of the kind of malevolent activity that Russia is pursuing against us, not just against their neighbor Ukraine," Petraeus said at CSIS, according to "Hvylya". He called on Congress to approve the sanctions and send them to the White House for signature.

The urgency is compounded by an unintended consequence of the Iran campaign itself. Surging oil prices - Brent crude has shot well past $100 per barrel from the mid-to-low 60s - are generating a windfall for Moscow. Petraeus said Russia "was supposed to be limiting those prices for Russian oil and gas," but the disruption has effectively bypassed those caps. An exception for India, which had agreed to reduce purchases, is likely coming as well.

Petraeus warned that this revenue boost could extend the life of a Russian war economy that was otherwise approaching its limits. Russia's national welfare funds, which have been financing its military-industrial complex, are set to run out this year. Moscow is struggling to recruit soldiers and sustain the war in Ukraine even as its forces achieve only "very incremental gains but at extraordinary losses" - now exceeding 1.3 million killed and wounded, "more than we took in all of World War II."

For any serious negotiation on ending the war in Ukraine, Petraeus said, "it has to start with Vladimir Putin looking himself in the mirror and recognizing that he needs a cessation of hostilities as much as do the Ukrainians." The path to that recognition runs through further sanctions, continued support for Ukraine, and cutting off the revenue streams keeping the Russian economy afloat.

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