Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy has reportedly called on the U.S. to put Russia on its list of state sponsors of terrorism. “People familiar with the conversation” told the Washington Post that Zelenskyy’s request, which has not previously been reported, came during a recent phone call with President Joe Biden. Biden made no commitments to any particular course of action but told his Ukrainian counterpart he is willing to explore a range of proposals to exert greater pressure on Moscow.
But making such a designation really isn’t about terrorism, but about the geopolitics of the Anglo-American empire against Russia. Such a measure could have a range of impacts, the Post concedes, including the imposition of economic penalties on dozens of other nations that continue to do business with Russia, the freezing of Moscow’s assets in the United States, including real estate, and the prohibition of a variety of exports that have both commercial and military uses.
The Post claims that on its merits, designating Russia would be easier than some other countries that are on the list, such as Cuba. Just before leaving office in January 2021, the Trump Administration put Cuba on the list for refusing to extradite an American accused of killing a New Jersey police officer in 1973. By that logic, should the U.S. be put on its own list for harboring the man suspected of being behind the bombing of Cubana Airlines flight 455 in 1976, killing all 73 aboard (well documented on the website of the National Security Archive)?
By contrast, the Post continues, Russia’s killing of civilians in Ukraine and Syria, its alleged assassinations and attempted assassinations of dissidents and spies in foreign countries, and its support for separatists in Ukraine accused by the United States of murder, rape and torture could more easily fit the State Department’s criteria.
