Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) is working to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism following the death of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.
Graham slammed Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Sunday and suggested that there would soon be bipartisan legislation to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Such a designation would add Russia to a small list of countries that includes North Korea, Iran, Syria, and Cuba.
“Why don’t we do this — I just got off the phone with two Democratic senators. Let’s make Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law,” Graham said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “Let’s make them pay a price for killing Navalny.”
Such a designation is reserved for countries determined by the State Department to have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.” The designation would include restrictions on U.S. foreign assistance and a ban on defense exports and sales, among a litany of other restrictions.
The move would further punish Russia, which is already facing a wide array of U.S. sanctions for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
On Sunday, Graham repudiated Putin and accused the strongman of orchestrating the killing of Navalny, an accusation shared by many in the U.S. and across the world.
“Navalny was one of the bravest people I ever met. When he went back to Russia, he had to know he was going to be killed by Putin, and he was murdered by Putin,” the South Carolina senator said.
Russia announced last week that Navalny was on a walk at the penal colony where he was imprisoned when he suddenly collapsed and died.
The death harkens back to 2020 when Navalny was poisoned with a nerve agent in Russia and nearly died in what many believe was an assassination attempt by Putin. The poison, which is in the Novichok family of nerve agents, has been used in other killings and assassination attempts believed to have been carried out at the behest of the Kremlin.
Other public figures took time during appearances on this week’s Sunday shows to discuss Navalny’s death.
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Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley attacked former President Donald Trump for his silence about the 47-year-old dissident’s sudden death.
“It’s actually pretty amazing … the fact that he won’t acknowledge anything with Navalny,” the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on ABC’s This Week. “Either he sides with Putin and thinks it’s cool that Putin killed one of his political opponents, or he just doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal.”
