U.S. Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, Sep. 5, 2026. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

1. President Trump signed the FDD Action-endorsed Russia sanctions bill earlier today. We unpack what its enactment will mean and where Congress should next focus its efforts to support Ukraine’s defense 👇

• Next stop, Moscow: The President signed the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026 (H.R. 5334) into law today, following the House passage of the bill 262-159 Wednesday evening. First, the law will impose mandatory sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin, senior Russian officials, military commanders, Russia’s shadow fleet of oil tankers, major state banks, and foreign suppliers of Russia’s war machine. Second, it authorizes the President to impose tariffs of up to 100% on the top five importers of Russian crude oil and gas and the top five countries facilitating Russian oil sanctions evasion. Third, it targets U.S. economic ties with Russia, barring energy exports, new investment, and trading in Russian state-linked securities, among other prohibitions. Altogether, the bill is a large-scale effort to squeeze Russian revenues from three directions.
• Why does that matter? The added pressure comes as Russia prepares to renew its winter campaign against Ukraine’s power grid. Last winter, Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities left millions without heat or electricity in subzero temperatures. Frozen ground and repeat strikes make winter grid repairs slower just when outages are most dangerous. By targeting Russia’s oil and gas revenue, Moscow’s war chest, these new sanctions and tariffs are designed to force the Kremlin to choose between sustaining the war effort and protecting its own economy.
• What to watch: Within just 30 days of enactment, Treasury will begin imposing mandatory sanctions on Russian banks and foreign banks doing business with them (Sec. 103). Separately, working through the U.S. Trade Representative, the President must determine which countries will be subject to the new tariffs. Top buyers will only face tariffs if they keep purchasing Russian oil or gas 30 or more days after enactment and have not taken significant steps to cut their purchases. Currently the largest buyers of Russian fossil fuels, China, India, and Turkey are now on the chopping block. The bill requires the President to impose these tariffs within 30 days of enactment and explain the rationale and methodology to Congress at least 10 days before that (Sec. 113).
• Congressional oversight: The first test of implementation will be the administration’s tariff justification identifying the major purchasers of Russian energy and the countries that help Russia evade sanctions. Congress should treat each statutory deadline as a checkpoint and press the administration to use its new authorities to promptly target Moscow’s war machine and its supporters. If designations or determinations are delayed, Congress should be ready to use oversight tools.
• Washington’s next targets: Congress must now back up its economic pressure on Russia with clear military support for Ukraine. It can do so by including robust authorization for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) in the final version of the NDAA and following through with funding in defense appropriations. Congress should also adopt provisions to strengthen U.S.-Ukraine military cooperation on unmanned systems. Meanwhile, the administration should expedite air defense deliveries to Ukraine before Russia’s winter offensive and work with European allies to help close Ukraine’s air defense gap.
• Germany is already stepping up: German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius met Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon this week, where the two signed an agreement positioning Germany as an additional production hub for Patriot interceptors. Earlier this month, Pistorius also pledged to send Ukraine Patriot interceptors from Germany’s own stocks.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent holds a White House Press Briefing, May 28, 2026, in James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Abe McNatt)

2. On Monday, the Treasury Department sanctioned VTB Bank, Russia’s second-largest bank, for its role in Iranian sanctions evasion, including establishing correspondent relationships with sanctioned Iranian banks. The designation’s real weight lies east of Moscow.

• VTB’s Iran problem: Already designated under Russia- and Ukraine-related authorities, VTB Bank “is not what many expected following the promise to sanction a ‘large bank,’” notes FDD’s Max Meizlish. Now Treasury has sanctioned it again, this time for its dealings with sanctioned Iranian banks. VTB’s foreign footprint includes offices and branches in India, Iran, and China, as Treasury’s own listing outlined. Tehran will not shutter VTB’s branch on its soil, and New Delhi and Beijing have not moved against the bank’s local operations in several years despite the earlier designations. “Sanctioning a bank in each of those jurisdictions directly would produce more immediate change,” Meizlish adds.
• And China’s VTB problem: “I’d read past the Russia headline as this is a China play,” writes FDD’s Miad Maleki. VTB is the only Russian bank with a licensed branch in mainland China and direct access to China’s national payment system. Since 2024, it has served as the primary pipeline for Russia-China trade after major Chinese banks wound down their operations in Russia. Maleki notes that Russian banks, including VTB, use their Chinese accounts to settle payments for Iranian traders, amounting to roughly $1.5 billion over the last 60 days.
• New sanctions carry new risks: VTB’s prior designations under the Russia and Ukraine sanctions programs did carry secondary sanctions implications, but its new designation includes it in a far more toxic environment and more active Iran sanctions program. That’s a different risk calculation for those doing business with VTB, especially if Treasury continues designating a bank a week as part of Operation Economic Outcast to isolate the Iranian regime. “Every Chinese bank touching VTB Shanghai now carries Iran-program secondary-sanctions exposure,” Maleki explains. Beijing has shielded its largest banks from the Russia fight. “Shielding them from the Iran fight is a different calculation, days before Xi meets Trump,” he adds.
• All roads lead to the Axis of Aggressors: These financial relationships illustrate how closely U.S. adversaries are working together, and more evidence is coming to light. Last week, Treasury’s designations more directly linked “the Iraqi government — not just Iranian-backed militias — to defense-related dealings involving China, Russia, and Iran,” Meizlish flagged. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported that Tehran acquired high-resolution satellite images of the U.S. base in Jordan from Chinese entities before the regime’s July attack that killed three U.S. troops. It is the strongest evidence yet of the lethal consequences that Chinese support for Iran has had on American servicemembers. President Trump should press Chinese leader Xi Jinping hard when they meet next week to step back from Beijing’s cozy ties with the rulers in Tehran.
• 📖 Dive in: FDD center heads Bradley Bowman, Elaine Dezenski, and RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery unpack the growing threat posed by America’s authoritarian adversaries and Washington’s next steps in their newly released book, Axis of Aggressors: Countering the Cooperation of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Flags in the lobby of the Harry S. Truman State Department building in Washington, D.C., April 28, 2025. (State Dept./Evan Eile)

3. What we’re also watching this week…

World’s leaders set to collide in NYC.

• UNGA Preview: Starting Tuesday, world leaders will gather in New York for the high-level week of the UN General Assembly. Leaders are expected to speak about Gaza’s reconstruction, efforts to dismantle Hezbollah in Lebanon, and Ukraine’s defense. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will also have a rare opportunity to shore up support for Ukraine’s defense and diplomatic positions, particularly on territorial concessions, explained FDD’s Ben Cohen.
• Election season: Moreover, the UN Security Council remains an important tool to build international pressure and coalitions, as we saw with the U.S. and Gulf-led proposed resolution to condemn Iran’s hijacking of the Strait of Hormuz, noted FDD’s Richard Goldberg. Issues like these are why policymakers should pay close attention to this year’s UN Secretary General selection and build opposition to candidates cozy with U.S. adversaries.
• Read more: Cohen unpacks eight questions facing the UN at its 81st General Assembly here.

There’s a pernicious plan to redefine genocide at the ICJ.

• Genocide redefined? Meanwhile at The Hague, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) may be about to lower the legal threshold for genocide. In Gambia’s genocide case against Myanmar, expected to be decided in October, judges are being asked to replace the existing high standard with a vague, politically malleable one. But it can be proven that Myanmar committed genocide without any change in standards.
• Skewering Israel and America: What’s the real reason for this change? The Myanmar judgment will precede the ICJ judgment on South Africa vs. Israel, notes FDD’s Orde Kittrie. He explains, “It would change the rule first in the less-watched case against Myanmar rather than seemingly invent it for Israel.” Kittrie warns that the lower threshold would also unleash genocide claims against the United States and U.S. officials in international courts, by making it possible to claim nearly every military campaign is genocidal. Washington is an ICJ member and the court’s largest funder. Congress should ask the administration to strongly discourage the ICJ from taking this step.

President Donald Trump greets President Xi Jinping of the People’s Republic of China at Zhongnanhai, Beijing, China, May 15, 2026. (Official White House Photo by Daniel Torok)

1. President Trump will welcome Chinese President Xi Jinping to the White House next week. Here’s what you need to know and what it will take for Washington to get serious about deterrence.

• Historic visit: The trip will mark the Chinese leader’s first White House visit in a decade and follows President Trump’s state visit to China just four months ago. While the soon-to-expire tariff truce and Chinese support for Iran are sure to be topics of conversation, China’s ambitions vis-a-vis Taiwan are always a part of Beijing’s calculus. This week, Reuters reported that Xi hopes to persuade Trump to publicly oppose Taiwan’s independence, which would be a divergence from the longstanding U.S. position of simply not supporting independence without opposing it.
• Zoom in on Taiwan: One dynamic sure to drive the meeting is the two leaders’ negotiating tactics. Whereas Trump prefers to delay commitments, using the uncertainty to create leverage, Xi has a different approach, explains FDD’s Craig Singleton. Beijing puts enormous effort into trying to establish new baselines and narrow the range of acceptable American behavior. Singleton points to Taiwan as the clearest example. Trump has deliberately delayed another major arms package to create space for diplomacy, but for Xi, the delay itself and its continuation are clear deliverables Beijing can lock in without reciprocal restraint toward Taiwan. When the arms package is approved, Beijing can frame it as a dangerous high-level signal of support for Taipei. As these dynamics play out, it’s more important than ever to strengthen deterrence in the Taiwan Strait.
• Why it matters: Taiwan is the single most important technology supplier underpinning the U.S. economy and the model ally the United States has been pressing its partners to become. In 2025, Taiwan supplied 87% of America’s imported semiconductors and the AI servers built from them. There aren’t alternatives either. Taiwan’s TSMC and UMC control nearly three-quarters of all semiconductor chips produced worldwide by contract manufacturers. Even so, TSMC has committed over $165 billion to rebuilding American semiconductor manufacturing capacity. No other ally has made a comparable investment in the durability of the American industrial base. That’s not to mention Taipei’s increasing defense spending, standing up to a U.S. adversary daily, and maintaining a vibrant democracy.
• What can be done: For one, the nearly $30 billion backlog of foreign military sales notified to Congress that have yet to be delivered to Taiwan is a major gap. FDD’s RADM (Ret.) Mark Montgomery recommends that Washington “set a formal target of delivering $10-15 billion in FMS annually to Taiwan” and prioritize Taiwan deliveries when they conflict with other customers. Moreover, Montgomery notes that the enhanced U.S.-Taiwan military training, exercises, and defense planning cooperation mandated by the Taiwan Enhanced Resilience Act in the FY 2023 NDAA have been lacking. From scale and scenario complexity to integration with the operational planning an actual conflict would require, Montgomery explains the exercises must be dramatically expanded. Congress can push for progress by having the Pentagon report annually on exercise scope, complexity, and interoperability outcomes with measurable benchmarks.
• 🏊 Dive in: In a newly released FDD Memo, Montgomery outlined eight more ways the United States can strengthen deterrence in the Taiwan Strait. Check it out here.

An EA-18G Growler prepares to launch from the USS Abraham Lincoln in support of Operation Epic Fury in the US CENTCOM area of responsibility, March 7, 2026. (U.S. Navy photo)

2. In a new report, the Pentagon’s Inspector General found that munitions expenditure during Operation Epic Fury “has resulted in strategic inventory shortfalls and revealed industrial base bottlenecks for munitions resupply.” The campaign degraded the central military threat to U.S. forces in the region, but rebuilding the arsenal that did it is the unfinished half of the job.

• The problem: The Inspector General estimated that the Department of Defense (DOD) spent $22.3 billion on expended munitions. The report also identified that the most persistent bottlenecks were in solid rocket motors, high-grade explosives and propellants, and skilled manufacturing labor. Congress has never funded Operation Epic Fury directly, so the services are paying for the operation out of training and maintenance accounts while the administration’s $67.1 billion supplemental request, $21 billion of it for munitions, waits on the Hill.
• What is being done: Acquisition officials are reportedly working to streamline procurement and production lead times and also to “stockpile critical materials, components, and selected munitions” to prepare for a contingency, the IG reported. DOD is also securing expanded production capacity through framework agreements with industry. That includes an agreement announced Thursday with Lockheed Martin to expand AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile production and delivery. It lays the foundation for multiyear procurement. The department is also using multiyear framework agreements with Anduril, CoAspire, and Zone 5 to prepare for large-scale production of low-cost cruise missiles under the Air Force’s Family of Affordable Mass Missiles program.
• Congress is moving on both tracks. The House-passed National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2027 (H.R. 8800) authorizes multiyear procurement for 13 critical munitions and directs the Pentagon to qualify a second solid rocket motor supplier. The Senate’s version (S. 4784) also authorizes multiyear procurement for specified munitions, requires alternative sourcing for rocket motors, and advances the development of affordable, mass-producible weapon systems.
• 🌇 No overnight fix: “Urgent, sustained action by both Congress and the Trump administration is needed to address the ongoing munitions crisis,” FDD’s Ryan Brobst tells us. “A failure to act would leave U.S. troops without the weapons they need to defend themselves.” Rebuilding stockpiles and industrial capacity takes years, making it critical to give manufacturers the predictability to invest in new production lines rather than chase demand that fluctuates from one year to the next.

A science fair exhibit at the “Introduction to the IAEA: A Seminar for Diplomats” event at the Agency headquarters in Vienna, Austria on 25 August 2017. Photo Credit: V. Alic/IAEA

Build an inbound technology-security regime.

For years, Washington’s technology-security strategy has focused on what China might acquire from the United States. Congress and successive administrations strengthened export controls, moved to restrict outbound and inbound investment in sensitive technologies, and tightened access to advanced semiconductors and the equipment needed to make them. Beijing has pursued the opposite course, building formidable positions in technologies it now seeks to sell, scale, and embed throughout the American economy. The U.S. government’s current set of tools is not organized to cover that flow. Export controls protect capabilities America cannot safely export or transfer, but no national security standards govern imports.
Testifying Wednesday before the House Select Committee on China, FDD’s Craig Singleton explained how Congress can build an inbound regime to complement the tools already in place:

• Establish a process to identify risky sectors. An inbound regime needs a repeatable way to decide what qualifies as high-risk rather than a case-by-case scramble. That process should be driven by two triggers. The first is the technology’s function. That is whether it collects data, connects to networks, receives remote software or firmware updates, or controls physical systems. The second is industrial concentration, whether it would make critical U.S. systems depend on Chinese capacity that would take years to replace.
• Tighten procurement restrictions. Federal funds should not support the purchase of high-risk Chinese technologies, whether directly or through contractors, integrators, or downstream products. Agencies at the federal and state level should identify and then strike these technologies from approved procurement lists and require contractors to certify that restricted Chinese hardware, software, and embedded components are absent from sensitive systems.
• Coordinate with allies and trusted partners. Standards that stop at the U.S. border invite reassembly abroad. The 2026 U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement joint review is the near-term opportunity to reinforce the principle of baseline exclusion for the highest-risk technologies. Washington can establish that Chinese-controlled technology cannot buy trusted-market access simply by being assembled or incorporated in Mexico or Canada. We should also look to the Indo-Pacific where Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and other partners possess the manufacturing capacity to help replace Chinese supply at scale.

Gruss aus Oktoberfest! Postcard filing series, Postcard from 1922 (Library of Congress)

🍻 Oktoberfest in the DMV: Summer is packing its bags, so it’s time to trade in your beach diet for a grand celebration of liquid bread, giant pretzels, and… leather shorts? Oktoberfest activities in Washington start this weekend and last until the end of October. Here is your guide to the best and weirdest ways to celebrate:

• 💒 Understanding the hype: Oktoberfest originated on October 12, 1810, to celebrate the marriage of the Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig, and the festival lasted five days replete with horse races, public feasting, and music. In the following years, the festival became an annual tradition that grew to include agricultural fairs and eventually large beer halls erected by Munich’s brewers that could fit thousands. Thankfully, German immigrants brought the party with them. That’s our reason to celebrate!
• 🍺 Bavaria in your backyard: Apparently two weeks were not enough, so Wunder Garten doubled it. The celebrations kick off with a Ceremonial Tapping of the Keg tonight, followed by a weekend of live music. If you were looking for 16 opportunities to win a steinholding competition (whatever that is) over the next four weeks, boy is this the place for you.
• 🐾 The Prince and the Pupper: The holiday celebrates a prince’s marriage, so that has to include man’s best friend. Dacha Shaw is hosting a Yappy Hour Wiener Dog meetup October 1, where dachshund owners get a free festbier. Wunder Garten is also hosting DOGtoberfest September 20, including a costume contest and an adoption event. The Wharf is hosting a Wiener 500 Dachshund Dash. And if your dog is a true Oktoberfest fanatic, Prost is also holding a Puptoberfest party on its patio on September 22 and 29.
• 🏆 For our competitors: Warm up those vocal cords, those legs, and that stomach, because Dacha Navy Yard has countless competitions for just about anyone, from an Oktoberfest spelling bee to a yodel-off. Just don’t forget your earplugs; we expect a lot of contestants entering under the influence of German liquid courage. And if words aren’t your thing, Bavarian Musical Chairs and a pretzel-eating contest are also on the itinerary.

🎊 Endless Celebrations: Though this isn’t Munich, Washington certainly knows how to bring the party. So, dust off your lederhosen or dirndl, because there are way more ways to celebrate in this city than we could ever cover here.