[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 77 (Monday, May 9, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2382-S2383]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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 SENATE RESOLUTION 623--CALLING ON THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO DESIGNATE 
         THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AS A STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM

  Mr. GRAHAM (for himself and Mr. Blumenthal) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations:

                              S. Res. 623

       Whereas, pursuant to section 1754(c) of the John S. McCain 
     National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (50 
     U.S.C. 4813(c)), section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act 
     (22 U.S.C. 2779A), and section 620A of the Foreign Assistance 
     Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371), the authority to designate a 
     country as a state sponsor of terrorism rests with the 
     Secretary of State;
       Whereas Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of North 
     Korea, Iran, and Syria are designated as state sponsors of 
     terrorism;
       Whereas, 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;
       Whereas, 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;
       Whereas 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;
       Whereas, since 2014, the Government of the Russian 
     Federation has supported separatists engaging in acts of 
     violence against Ukrainian civilians in the Donbas region;
       Whereas, since the entry of the Russian Federation into the 
     Syrian Civil War in 2015, the Russian Federation has targeted 
     innocent civilians in Syria with attacks on civilian markets, 
     medical facilities, and schools;
       Whereas 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;
       Whereas, 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'';
       Whereas the Wagner Group collaborates with the Ministry of 
     Defense of the Russian Federation to support the foreign 
     policy objectives of the Russian Federation;
       Whereas 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'';
       Whereas 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;
       Whereas, on March 14, 2022, Chairperson-in-Office of the 
     Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Zbigniew 
     Rau stated that actions of the Government of the Russian 
     Federation in Ukraine against innocent civilians and civilian 
     infrastructure is ``state terrorism'';
       Whereas, on March 17, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky 
     called for the world to acknowledge the Russian Federation as 
     a terrorist state;
       Whereas 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'';
       Whereas, on April 27, 2022, Secretary of State Antony 
     Blinken stated before Congress that ``there's no doubt in my 
     mind that the Russians are terrorizing the Ukrainian 
     people'';
       Whereas, at the direction of President Putin, the Russian 
     Federation has and continues to commit war crimes by 
     directing and authorizing the indiscriminate targeting of 
     civilian centers within Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, and 
     Ukraine, resulting in the deaths of countless innocent men, 
     women, and children;
       Whereas armed forces of the Russian Federation have 
     committed numerous summary executions against innocent 
     civilians and have attempted to cover their atrocities with 
     mass graves across Ukraine; and
       Whereas, when responding to questions regarding designating 
     the Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism, the 
     spokesperson for the Department of State stated that ``we are 
     going to look at all potential options--options that are 
     available to us under the law, options that would be 
     effective in holding Russia to account--and if a tool is 
     available and effective, we won't hesitate to use it'': Now, 
     therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) views the actions of the Government of the Russian 
     Federation, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, as 
     acts of terrorism; and
       (2) calls on the Secretary of State to designate the 
     Russian Federation as a state sponsor of terrorism.

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