A group of US senators present a bill to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism

Sep. 15 () –

US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal, of the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, respectively, presented a bill on Wednesday to designate Russia as a State Sponsor of Terrorism,

The proposal has come months after members of the Senate Judiciary Committee called on the Biden Administration to do so, as reported by ‘The Hill’.

The bipartisan duo seeks to make Russia the fifth addition to the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, joining North Korea, Iran, Syria and Cuba.

The designation would remove Russia’s sovereign immunity from US courts and reduce foreign assistance and exports to the country, according to a statement issued jointly by Graham and Blumenthal.

This bill follows a resolution passed by the Senate in late July calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to impose the designation on Russia.

“If (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s regime is not a state sponsor of terrorism after all this, then the designation is meaningless,” Graham said in the letter.

“The events of these past days and weeks have shown more than ever that Russia should be designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism,” Blumenthal said.

However, Biden has previously rejected the measure, since he considers that it may have “undesired consequences” for both his own.

The Kremlin, for its part, welcomed the US president’s rejection of the Senate resolution, considering that the mere debate on this issue is already “monstrous” in itself. “It is good that the president (of the United States) responds like this,” Russian government spokesman Dimitri Peskov said in a television interview picked up by the TASS agency.