Sens. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, and Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, introduced a new bill on Thursday to label Russia a state sponsor of terror, after Russia and North Korea signed a new defense agreement earlier this week.
The new pact promises to provide mutual defense in case either country is attacked. The agreement could also expand transfers of military technology from Russia to North Korea in exchange for more munitions to Russia in its war with Ukraine, according to NBC News. It comes as both countries face serious sanctions from the West.
Blumenthal said North Korea leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin are two of the "most autocratic, atrocity-committing leaders in the world," and that the state sponsor label on Russia was just as important as the sanctions.
“This message to the world is as important in a moral sense as any practical consequence. Russia deserves to be in this small selective club of atrocity-committing killers,” Blumenthal said, per The Hill.
The new legislation would make the State Department classify Russia as the state sponsor, which limits any U.S. aid to Russia, unlock new sanctions, and allow U.S. nationals to sue Russia for hostage-taking, torture, and extrajudicial killings.
If the resolution passes, Blumenthal and Graham said there would be exceptions to trading with Russia for certain diplomatic purposes, like medicine and agriculture. It also grants the president the ability to rescind the classification for Russia whenever he feels fit, without congressional approval.
North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Cuba are already designated by the U.S. as state sponsors of terror.
“We’re not trying to be provocative by labeling Putin a state sponsor of terrorism,” Graham said. “After the defense agreement between North Korea and Russia, it is time for us to push back. Now is the moment above all other moments … Here’s a general rule: Anybody that does a defense agreement with North Korea should be a state sponsor."
The resolution comes after the European Union declared Russia a state sponsor of terror in 2022.
