Presenting the plan to introduce Russia as a country sponsoring terrorism in the US Senate.
American senators presented a plan with the aim of identifying Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
US Democratic and Republican senators introduced a bill on Wednesday that would designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
The government of Ukraine had previously asked the US government to apply this label to Russia, but the administration of US President Joe Biden opposed this.
According to the Reuters news agency, Richard Blumenthal, a US Democratic senator and one of the supporters of this bill, said in a press conference: “Now the need to introduce this measure is stronger than ever.”
US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and another supporter of this bill also said that the designation of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism sends a message of strong support for Ukraine to Kiev and also to US allies, as well as severe sanctions against Russia, such as allowing it to be sued in US courts are imposing sanctions for its actions in Ukraine.
Reuters wrote, it is still not clear when this bill will be voted on or if it will be voted on at all.
But these two senators have been supporting this measure for several months and they traveled to Kyiv in July to support it.
Several other legislators of the US Congress joined the group of supporters of this US action. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claimed in July that the plan to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism is “long overdue.”
US President Joe Biden has said that he has no plans to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. U.S. government officials say they don’t feel this is the most effective way to hold Russia accountable and could disrupt aid delivery to Ukraine.
Moscow has announced to Washington that if it designates Russia as a state that supports terrorism, the diplomatic relations between the two sides will be badly damaged and may even be severed.
North Korea, Cuba, Syria and Iran have been included in this list of America.
The bill, introduced by Blumenthal and Graham, also includes a clause that would allow the president to exempt Russia from the title after testifying to Congress that Russia no longer supports “acts of international terrorism.”
