United States senators have called on President Joe Biden's administration to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism over its aggression in Ukraine, arguing that they would push Congress to pass a bill issuing the designation with or without the president's support.
The bipartisan pair of senators, Democrat Richard Blumenthal and Republican Lindsey Graham, said on Sunday that the designation should be made either by the president or Congress. They both said that Biden must intensify his pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin and continue supporting Ukraine amid the war.
State Sponsor of Terrorism
In a statement, Blumenthal, who represents Connecticut, said that he hoped Biden would decide to adopt the same stance voluntarily and has not dismissed it as a possibility. On the other hand, Graham, from South Carolina, said he wanted the Biden administration to engage with Congress in designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.
However, the Republican senator said that Congress was "willing" to advance legislation calling for the designation with or without Biden's support. Graham noted that he would like to work with the president's administration but will push for it regardless, as per CNN.
The two senators traveled together in June to Ukraine, where they then met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. They also called on Biden to send more humanitarian aid to the European nation and issue stronger sanctions against Russia over its invasion.
The U.S. State Department is responsible for designating nations as state sponsors of terrorism, and it defines it as a country that has "repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism." Currently, there are only four countries that are labeled as state sponsors of terrorism by the U.S.: Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria.
According to Channel News Asia, the situation comes as Zelensky on Saturday accused Russia of using Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for "terror" after the operator of the facility reported major damage at the site. Energoatom, the operator of the plant, said that parts of the facility had been "seriously damaged" by military strikes.
Who Makes the Decision?
The official also noted that one of the facility's reactors was forced to shut down as Friday's strikes had damaged a station containing nitrogen and oxygen and an auxiliary building. Pro-Moscow authorities in the Russian-occupied Kherson region reported the assassination of a senior official.
Furthermore, the head of Amnesty International's Ukraine office resigned from the organization over the group's publication of a controversial report that accused the country's military of endangering civilians.
Both Kyiv and Moscow have exchanged blame for the attacks on the Zaporizhzhia power plant, which is Europe's largest atomic power complex. In his nightly address on Saturday, Zelensky once again accused Moscow of terrorism, arguing that "Russian terrorists became the first in the world to use the power plant for terror."
A nation's designation as a sponsor of terrorism requires the secretary to make a determination over repeated international terrorism. The three statutes that provide authority to make these designations do not comprehensively define what is considered "international terrorism," Crisis Group reported.
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