The European Parliament recognized Russia as a sponsor of terrorism

On Wednesday, the European Parliament by an absolute majority (494 out of 596 voters) approved a resolution recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism.

• The resolution (the text can be viewed here ) states, among other things, that “the Russian Armed Forces and their henchmen committed numerous executions, kidnappings, sexual violence, torture and other atrocities in the occupied territories of Ukraine, including massacres of the civilian population in Bucha, Irpen, Izyum and Liman” .
• According to the authors, the number of documented war crimes is approaching 40,000, Russia has launched more than 4,000 missiles in Ukraine and destroyed more than 60,000 civilian infrastructure facilities, as well as 40% of the country's energy infrastructure.
• The document shows traces of the interests of individual countries - for example, the fall of the Tu-154 near Smolensk with the death of Polish President Lech Kaczynski is mentioned.
• The resolution of the European Parliament has a great symbolic meaning, but does not entail direct legal consequences (although it contains a call to develop a mechanism for "anti-terrorist" sanctions applicable to states). Now there is no legal basis for this: EU law allows only certain individuals and organizations to be included in the list of terrorists - for example, Hamas and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, and the consent of all 27 countries of the union is required for inclusion in it. Therefore, the authors of the document propose to include the Wagner PMC and the 141st Special Motorized Regiment (“Kadyrovtsev”) in the list.
• Much more serious is the status of a state sponsor of terrorism in the United States. There, it would mean expanded secondary sanctions on the basis of one sign of cooperation with Russia, and most importantly, the possibility of filing lawsuits by victims of Russia's actions in Ukraine (and their relatives) in US courts.
• A bill recognizing Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism was submitted to the US Senate (the Blumenthal-Graham bill), but was not adopted. Now there are four countries on the American list - Syria, Iran, Cuba and North Korea. Moscow threatened to sever diplomatic relations with Washington in response.

The resolution was welcomed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, again calling for Russia to be isolated at all levels and held accountable.