CCD ( The Center Countering Disinformation) analyses the appeal of the House of Representatives of US’s speaker Nansy Pelosi to the Secretary of State Blinken to officially declare Russia as a state sponsoring terrorism.
A state-sponsor of terrorism is a country which, according to official perception of the US State Department,aids acts of international terrorism.The US Congress formally permits the Secretary of State to declare another country to be a state maintaining terrorism,but it also can be delivered without the Secretary of State.Passing the law by US Congress is a more atrocious path than the Secretary of State’s resolution,but it will grant the administration the additional political cover needed for the escalation of economical pressure of Russia and mounting anti-putin’s rhetoric.
The first list of countries-sponsors of terrorism was made up by the USA in 1979.Since then,Iraq-1979-2004,Libya-1979-2006,South Yemen-1979-1990 and Sudan-1993-2020 were declared to be the sponsors of terrorism.
Modern list of countries-sponsors of terrorism contains:
-Syria-since 29.12.1979;
-Cuba-from 1982 till 2015 and again since 2021;
-Iran-since January 19,1984;
-Democratic National Republic of Korea (North Korea)-1988-2008,then again since 20.11.2017.
Russia meets the criteria of state maintaining terrorism particularly due to:
-Destroying Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities;
-terrorist missile or bomb attacks on peaceful Ukrainian towns;
-massive russian shelling with the aftermath of destroying civillian infrastructure and local citizens;
-systematic war crimes with destructions in every region,where there used to be or still are russian occupiers;
-numerous mass executions of innocents, attempts to conceal the crimes by creating mass burials throughout Ukraine;
-promotion and maintenance of terrorism and terrorist organisations such as “LPK” and “DPR” in the East of Ukraine;
-incitation of international terrorist acts against political opponents and nation states;
-terrorist acts on the territory of EU and UK, in particular-the poisoning of former FSB employee Lytvynenko and former employee of russian military intelligence Skripal,explosions at military warehouses in the Czech Republic;
-terror all around the world through private military networks-the Wagner group in particular;
-supporting the terrorist regime of Syria and partaking in crimes of the Syrian dictator B. Assad – coordinating actions with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah and providing them with air support
-war crimes in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Ukraine, which resulted in a large number of deaths of civilian men, women and children.
The world has been called out to declare russia to be a country sponsoring terrorism long before present days:
-in April 2014,after the Russia’s annexation of the Crimea, a corresponding petition to the President of America gathered more than 100,000 signatures from all over the world,but was rejected by B.Obama;
-in April 2018,the US State Department was required to include russia in this list on the aftermath of Skripal’s poisoning;
-in June 2018 Ukraine appealed to the International Court of Justice of United Nations with a lawsuit to declare russia as a state-sponsor of terrorism;
-in April 2022,the Supreme Council of Ukraine has recognised Russia as a terrorist state with a neo-Nazi regime;
-in May 2022,the Seimos of Lithuania adopted a resolution on recognizing russia as a terrorist state.
The alleged aftermath of including russia into the common “club” alongside Syria,Cuba,Iran and North Korea:
-numerous financial restrictions, a ban on the sale of defense goods,control over the export of dual-purpose goods;
-virtually blocking for any NATO ally of the USA the possibility to cooperate with russian federation in the above fields and automatic sanctions against any country which tries to conduct any normal economic cooperation with russia;
-russian government will become a legal target for strikes by American army and special services;
-citizens of russian federation abroad will be put under specific control,they will be perceived as alleged terrorists and spies and will likely be deprived of diplomatic immunity;
-the opportunity to apply for compensation to the American courts for the relatives of victims of russian invadors;
-simplifying the ban on russian assets on an international level with their subsequent usage to compensate for the damages dealt to Ukraine.
The declaration of russia being a state-sponsor of terrorism is:
-a political position attesting to the war crimes of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine and against humanity in general
-a powerful opportunity to reduce Russia’s spending on large-scale military operations and the number of civilian casualties
-the transformation of the Russian Federation into a toxic market for any investor and its long-term economic stagnation, which will make it impossible to wage a technological war in Russia
-an incitement to change the government and the political course of the russian federation and the possible realisation of the consequences of russian war against Ukraine by russian citizens.
