Russia is a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act

To provide for the designation of the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism. 1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Russia is a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act 2. Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Pursuant to existing law, it is United States policy to designate countries that have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism as state sponsors of terrorism. (2) Cuba, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, Iran, and Syria are designated as state sponsors of terrorism. (3) At the direction of President Vladimir Putin, the Government of the Russian Federation has and continues to promote acts of international terrorism against political opponents and nation states. (4) Under the orders of President Putin, the Government of the Russian Federation engaged in a campaign of terror, utilizing brutal force targeting civilians during the Second Chechen War. (5) Actions by the Government of the Russian Federation against civilian centers, such as Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, left countless innocent men, women, and children dead or wounded. (6) Since 2014, the Government of the Russian Federation has supported separatists engaging in acts of violence against Ukrainian civilians in the Donbas region. (7) The Government of the Russian Federation provides material support to Syria, a nation currently designated as a state sponsor of terrorism, that has been used to target the Syrian people. (8) According to the Congressional Research Service, the Russian Federation spreads terror throughout the world through private military networks of mercenaries, such as the Wagner Group, in an effort to “project power cheaply and deniably”. (9) The Wagner Group collaborates with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation to support the foreign policy objectives of the Russian Federation. (10) The Department of the Treasury identifies the Wagner Group as “a designated Russian Ministry of Defense proxy force” and states that “Wagner’s activities in other countries, including Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, and Libya, have generated insecurity and incited violence against innocent civilians”. (11) It was reported in February 2022 that more than 400 Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group were dispatched to Kyiv with orders from the Kremlin to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and members of the Government of Ukraine. (12) On March 1, 2022, Jason Blazakis, the director of the Department of State’s Counterterrorism Finance and Designations Office in the Bureau of Counterterrorism from 2008 to 2018, wrote in reference to white supremacist groups that “Russia provides sanctuary to a U.S.-designated terrorist group, the Russian Imperial Movement, which operates with impunity in Russian territory.”. (13) On March 17, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the world to acknowledge the Russian Federation as a terrorist state. (14) The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has appealed to Congress to encourage the Department of State to recognize the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism noting that “the Russian Federation has for years supported and financed terrorist regimes and terrorist organizations, including being the main supplier of weapons to the Assad regime in Syria and supporting terrorists in the Middle East and Latin America, organizing acts of international terrorism, including the poisoning of the Skripal family in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the downing of a civilian Malaysian airliner and other acts of terrorism”. (15) On May 24, 2022, Ukrainian prosecutors accused two Wagner Group mercenaries of committing war crimes against civilians near Kyiv. (16) On July 18, 2022, the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence confirmed that the Wagner Group plays a central role in recent fighting in Ukraine, including Russia’s capture of Popasna and Lysyschansk. (17) The United States has a range of tools available to hold the Russian Federation accountable, reduce its war machine, and isolate it economically and diplomatically, including by designating it as a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing corresponding sanctions. 3. Designation of the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism (a) In general Effective beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, the Russian Federation shall be deemed to have been determined to be a country the government of which has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism for purposes of— (1) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 ( 50 U.S.C. 4813(c)(1)(A) (2) section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 ( 22 U.S.C. 2371 (3) section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act ( 22 U.S.C. 2780 (4) any other provision of law. (b) Rule of construction Nothing in this Act may be construed as to provide for the imposition of sanctions against any person that engages in transactions to export agricultural products from Ukraine or to provide humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.

Summary: Russia is a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act This bill designates Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. (A country with this designation is subject to certain restrictions, including a ban on receiving U.S. defense exports and limits on receiving U.S. foreign assistance.)