US Congress speaker calls on Blinken to label russia as terrorist state

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi appealed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to declare russia a state sponsor of terrorism

Politico reports, citing two sources.

She emphasized that Congress would do it otherwise.

The publication says Pelosi warned Blinken during a phone conversation earlier this week.

Representatives of the State Department and Pelosi's office declined to comment.

Congress gave the Secretary of State the power to declare another country a state sponsor of terrorism.

Some members of Congress, however, say lawmakers can pass a law recognizing any country without the State Department's input, thereby exerting pressure on the president of russia, vladimir putin, on their own.

"There's no legal reason Congress could not pass legislation to effectively designate russia as a state sponsor of terrorism," said an aide to the Democratic senator.

"Congress passing legislation is obviously a more complicated route than the secretary making the designation, but it would give the administration the political cover it needs to escalate economic pressure and rhetoric against Putin," he added.

Senators Lindsey Graham (Republican of California) and Richard Blumenthal (Democrat of Connecticut), for example, introduced a bill in May that would emphasize the Senate's view that russia is involved in acts of terrorism. But mainly, it calls on Blinken to make this decision official.

Earlier this month, they traveled to Kyiv to promote the move with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A similar resolution was also introduced in the House of Representatives.

Declaring russia as a state sponsor of terrorism will force the US government to limit:

• foreign aid,
• reduce the export and sale of defense commodities,
• establish control over the export of dual-purpose goods and much more.

The State Department says it also "implicates other sanctions laws that penalize persons and countries engaging in certain trade with state sponsors."

This means that the US may have to expand its sanctions much more broadly than on specific sectors of the russian economy.

The current four U.S.-designated state sponsors of terrorism –– Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria –– trade far less with the world than russia. That may explain why the State Department has long been skeptical of the move's results.

"The sanctions we have in place and have taken are the same steps that would be entailed by the designation of a state sponsor of terrorism," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters in April, adding: "We'll take a close look at all potential authorities. This is one of them."

Some experts say the move would increase the pressure on the Kremlin and make all dealings with russia for US persons near impossible. "Labeling russia as a state sponsor of terrorism would be significant because it's a blanket measure," said Edward Fishman, an expert on sanctions at the Atlantic Council think tank in Washington, DC. "It injects a risk into all dealings with russia."

If either resolution passes on Capitol Hill—or a full terrorism sponsor designation gets through both chambers—Blinken may feel more pressure to side with lawmakers and make the designation.

In a resolution, the Committee on International Relations of the US Senate called on the State Department to recognize russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

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