Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked President Joe Biden to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism”, which would activate perhaps the harshest suite of sanctions available with the United States against the government of President Vladimir Putin.
This was first reported by The Washington Post, which said Zelenskyy made the request “during a recent phone call with Biden that centred on the West’s multifaceted response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine”.
Biden did not commit to any specific actions, but told Zelenskyy that he was “willing to explore a range of proposals to exert greater pressure on Moscow”, ‘The Post’ reported.
Terrorist designation
The US Secretary of State (the minister primarily in charge of foreign relations) has the power to designate countries that “have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism” as “State Sponsors of Terrorism”.
According to the State Department website, the US can place four categories of sanctions on countries that are on this list: restrictions on US foreign assistance; a ban on defence exports and sales; certain controls over exports of dual use items; and miscellaneous financial and other restrictions.
Sanctions can also be placed on countries and persons that engage in certain trade with designated countries.
Countries on the list
As of now, there are four countries on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The first to be designated among them was…
