Russia is a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act
Bill: H.R.8568 | Sponsor: Rep. Lieu, Ted (D-CA)
Policy area: International Affairs

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.)

To provide for the designation of the Russian Federation as a state 
                         sponsor of terrorism.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Russia is a State Sponsor of 
Terrorism Act''.

SEC. 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.

SEC. 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); or
            (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.
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