The US is considering the matter of recognizing Russia as “a state sponsor of terrorism,” US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink has said, emphasizing that the issue must be carefully analyzed from a legal point of view.
“With regard to designation as a state sponsor of terrorism, this is something we are looking at and reviewing. Any such designation requires a careful review in accordance to our own laws,” she said.
In a Sunday interview with Radio Liberty, Brink also emphasized that the US is already using all available means to keep pressure on Russia, including the ones normally applying to state sponsors of terrorism. She promised that Joe Biden’s administration will “continue to hold Russia to account” in accordance with US law.
The envoy echoed remarks made in April by US State Department spokesman Ned Price, that the government was looking into the potential steps it could take against Moscow and noted that already-imposed anti-Russia sanctions are the same steps that “would be entailed by the designation of a state sponsor of terrorism.”
Countries daubed with this status – currently Cuba, North Korea, Iran and Syria – are subject to harsh sanctions.