A bipartisan delegation of US senators on Sunday pressed Donald Trump to punish Russia over its alleged interference in the US election race and warned that Moscow’s next targets will be elections in France and Germany.

Speaking at the Munich security conference, Republican senator Lindsey Graham, who is a member of the Senate armed services committee, expressed confidence that Congress will pass sanctions against Russia. “2017 is going to be the year of kicking Russian ass in Congress,” he said.

The US intelligence agencies claim the Kremlin ordered hackers to infiltrate the Democratic National Committee in the run-up to November’s presidential elections. Trump’s response has been ambiguous, initially rejecting the intelligence assessment and later admitting that Russia might have been behind it.

Graham predicted that sanctions against Russia will be backed by more than 75 senators in the 100-member chamber. Such a move would pose a dilemma for Trump, who is seeking rapprochement with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

The senator, who is one of the most vocal Republican critics of the president, said his goal was to put the sanctions approved by Congress on Trump’s desk. “I hope he’ll embrace the idea that as the leader of the free world he should be working with us to punish Russia.”

Graham added that his “biggest concern with President Trump is that he’s never really looked the camera in the eye and said they’re going to pay a price on my watch for trying to interfere in our election”.

Graham and Democratic senators Chris Murphy and Jeanne Shaheen were speaking on the last day of the three-day Munich conference, which brought together government leaders, foreign and defence ministers and other politicians from around the world.

The chairman of the Senate armed services committee, Republican John McCain, who is part of the delegation, delivered a blistering attack on Trump’s values on Friday.

The one deal to emerge from the Munich conference was an agreement between Russia, Ukraine, Germany to begin enforcing a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine originally agreed in Minsk in February 2015. Under the agreement, both sides in the Ukraine conflict are scheduled to begin withdrawing heavy weapons from Monday.

“We have actively supported this decision and obviously expressed a conviction that this time failure should not be allowed to take place,” the Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said.

Both the US and the European countries have economic sanctions in place against Russia over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the continued fighting in eastern Ukraine. Trump has said that the sanctions will not be lifted until there is at least some progress in implementing the ceasefire.

The three-day conference began with expressions of hope that the attendance of US vice-president Mike Pence, on his first visit to Europe since taking office, and defence secretary James Mattis would provide insights into Trump’s foreign policy goals. But the conference wound up with widespread expressions of disappointment that there is still no clarity on the president’s views on Nato, the European Union and Russia.

Murphy, tweeting after Pence’s speech, wrote: “World leaders attending the conference are super-confused.” He said that Pence had delivered a good speech, in which he expressed support for Nato and said Russia will be held to account for its actions in Ukraine, but the vice-president had contradicted everything Trump had said in the last four weeks.

World leaders attending #MSC2017 are super confused. @VP just gave a good speech contradicting everything @POTUS has said in last 4 weeks. — Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) February 18, 2017

“No one has any clue what the foreign policy of this administration is,” Murphy said.

A member of the Senate foreign affairs committee, Murphy said the US has not done enough to respond to the hacking of the Democratic party last year, blaming Russia for attempting to swing the US election in favour of Trump. “They have so far paid little price for that,” Murphy said, calling for a congressional investigation into the alleged hacking and for the US to find ways of combating such asymmetric warfare.

Graham, who also supports an investigation, said that once the Democrats stopped blocking Trump’s proposed appointments to his administration, Congress could get on with dealing with Russia. “Top of the list is sanctions against Russia,” he said.

Lindsey warned that Europe, which has a series of elections coming up this year in the Netherlands, France and Germany, should prepare for cyber-attacks. “Germany, you are next. France, they are coming after you,” the senator said.

US senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic member of the foreign affairs committee, told the conference there should be a congressional investigation into the hacking so the American public knows what happened. There had already been similar attacks in Europe, in the Baltics, in Montenegro and Moldova.

Echoing Graham, she said Russia would be coming after France, Germany and other countries holding elections. “It is part of a Russian strategy to undermine Europe,” she said.

Shaheen, Murphy and Graham united in support of the US media, which Trump described at the enemy of the American people.

The senators said, a free press is an essential part of democracy. “They are more a pain in the ass than a threat to democracy,” said Graham.

Shaheen added while there are biases in the US media, attempts by Trump to manipulate the media was dangerous.

The British defence secretary, Sir Michael Fallon, in a late-night session at the conference, warned that if Afghanistan was to collapse into chaos, Europe might find itself facing an influx of three to four million refugees and economic migrants.



Fallon, explaining why the UK and Nato intended to remain in Afghanistan until stability was achieved, said: “If this country collapses, we here will feel the consequences, very directly.

“There could be three to four million young Afghan men sent out by their villages to migrate westwards, and they could be heading here,” Fallon said.



