[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 8568 Introduced in House (IH)]
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117th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 8568
To provide for the designation of the Russian Federation as a state
sponsor of terrorism.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 28, 2022
Mr. Lieu (for himself, Mr. Wilson of South Carolina, Mr. Malinowski,
Mr. Kinzinger, and Mr. Golden) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To provide for the designation of the Russian Federation as a state
sponsor of terrorism.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Russia is a State Sponsor of
Terrorism Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Pursuant to existing law, it is United States policy to
designate countries that have repeatedly provided support for
acts of international terrorism as state sponsors of terrorism.
(2) Cuba, the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea,
Iran, and Syria are designated as state sponsors of terrorism.
(3) 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.
(4) 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.
(5) 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.
(6) Since 2014, the Government of the Russian Federation
has supported separatists engaging in acts of violence against
Ukrainian civilians in the Donbas region.
(7) 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.
(8) 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''.
(9) The Wagner Group collaborates with the Ministry of
Defense of the Russian Federation to support the foreign policy
objectives of the Russian Federation.
(10) 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''.
(11) 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.
(12) On March 1, 2022, Jason Blazakis, the director of the
Department of State's Counterterrorism Finance and Designations
Office in the Bureau of Counterterrorism from 2008 to 2018,
wrote in reference to white supremacist groups that ``Russia
provides sanctuary to a U.S.-designated terrorist group, the
Russian Imperial Movement, which operates with impunity in
Russian territory.''.
(13) On March 17, 2022, President Volodymyr Zelensky called
for the world to acknowledge the Russian Federation as a
terrorist state.
(14) 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''.
(15) On May 24, 2022, Ukrainian prosecutors accused two
Wagner Group mercenaries of committing war crimes against
civilians near Kyiv.
(16) On July 18, 2022, the United Kingdom's Ministry of
Defence confirmed that the Wagner Group plays a central role in
recent fighting in Ukraine, including Russia's capture of
Popasna and Lysyschansk.
(17) The United States has a range of tools available to
hold the Russian Federation accountable, reduce its war
machine, and isolate it economically and diplomatically,
including by designating it as a state sponsor of terrorism and
imposing corresponding sanctions.
SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION AS A STATE SPONSOR OF
TERRORISM.
(a) In General.--Effective beginning on the date of the enactment
of this Act, the Russian Federation shall be deemed to have been
determined to be a country the government of which has repeatedly
provided support for acts of international terrorism for purposes of--
(1) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export Control Reform Act
of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4813(c)(1)(A));
(2) section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22
U.S.C. 2371);
(3) section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C.
2780); or
(4) any other provision of law.
(b) Rule of Construction.--Nothing in this Act may be construed as
to provide for the imposition of sanctions against any person that
engages in transactions to export agricultural products from Ukraine or
to provide humanitarian assistance in Ukraine.
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