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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has made a direct appeal to President Biden for the United States to declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, one of the most powerful and sweeping sanctions in the US arsenal.
Zelensky’s request, which was not previously reported, came during a recent phone call with Biden that discussed the West’s multi-faceted response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to people familiar with the call.
Biden did not commit to specific actions during the call, these people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive dialogue between the two leaders. The president has told his Ukrainian counterpart he is ready to consider a number of proposals to put more pressure on Moscow, they added.
Even during the Cold War, Washington refrained from referring to the Soviet Union in this way, although Moscow supported groups considered terrorist actors in the 1970s and 1980s.
Such a measure could have a number of ramifications, including imposing economic penalties on dozens of other nations that continue to do business with Russia, freezing Moscow’s assets in the United States, including real estate, and banning a wide range of exports involving both have commercial as well as military purposes.
Zelensky’s proposal comes as Washington seeks to keep its fragile network of alliances together amid soaring energy prices and rising inflation, exacerbated by the unprecedented string of sanctions against Russia.
“Putting Russia on the list of state sponsors of terrorism would be the nuclear economic option,” Jason Blazakis, a former State Department official and expert on terrorism designations, wrote in a recent essay.
Since 1979, Republican and Democratic governments have used the term terror sparingly, targeting only a handful of pariah states in which the United States has only limited interests.
The label, which requires a determination by the secretary of state, can be applied to any country that has “repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism,” according to a State Department fact sheet. The list currently names four countries: North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria.
Some combative Republicans in Congress have pushed for the Biden administration to add Russia to the list. But government officials were noncommittal, saying only they would consider the proposal, said a congressional aide familiar with the talks.
When asked directly about US support for the appointment at a press conference last month, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “We are and we will look at everything.”
“Our focus is first and foremost to do everything we can to contribute to a speedy end to this war and end the suffering of the Ukrainian people,” he told Foreign Ministry reporters.
Zelensky’s support for the measure adds momentum to the push as world leaders seek to use increasingly powerful military, economic and diplomatic means to back the Ukrainian president.
However, some of Zelenskyy’s requests have been denied in the past, including his demand for MiG-29 fighter jets, which some NATO countries said risked starting a wider Russian war in Europe. He has also urged European countries to close their ports to Russian ships and stop buying Russian oil, which they continue to do.
In fact, determining Russia might be easier than it was for the nations currently on the list. Cuba was added by the Trump administration in January 2021, shortly before Biden took office, for its refusal to extradite an American convicted of the 1973 murder of a New Jersey state police officer and for its support of a Colombian guerrilla movement. Opponents criticized the move as using the term for political purposes.
In contrast, Russia’s killings of civilians in Ukraine and Syria, its alleged assassinations and attempted assassinations of dissidents and spies abroad, and its support for separatists in Ukraine accused by the United States of murder, rape and torture , the state more likely to benefit the department’s criteria.
“This suggestion is not unfounded,” said Ariel Cohen, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “The question is economic, what are the implications?”
The decision to add a country is important because once countries are on the list, they are rarely removed. Such a move usually requires an extraordinary event, such as regime change – which led to Iraq’s being delisted in 2004 after the fall of Saddam Hussein – or a significant turning point in US policy.
Cuba was removed from the list during the Obama administration’s rapprochement with Havana, a move reversed by the Trump administration. Sudan was removed from the list after 27 years as part of the Trump administration’s effort to reward countries that normalize ties with Israel.
“The list has no room for improvement other than perfection,” wrote Daniel Byman in an analysis of the measure for the Brookings Institution, “according to states that have dramatically reduced their support [for terrorism] but some residual bonds retain no use.”