A resolution to declare the Russian Federation a terrorist regime has just been passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with 99 yeas and one in abstention.
Russian issue: State Sponsors of Terrorism, U.S. State DepartmentThe document titled “Further escalation of the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine” was presented at the PACE autumn session in Strasbourg today.
PACE is made up of 324 parliamentarians from the national parliaments of the Council of Europe’s 46 member states, and usually meets four times a year in Strasbourg.
Earlier, Latvia’s parliament declared Russia a state sponsor of terror Thursday for its targeted military attacks against civilians and public places.
Lativia’s unicameral parliament, known as the Saeima, approved a resolution noting that Russia has supported and financed terrorist regimes and organizations for years.The Saeima used as examples Moscow’s support for the Assad government in Syria shooting down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over eastern Ukraine in 2014 and the poisoning of British intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in 2018.
“It has been evident for years that Russia uses terrorism to pursue its goals, whether its targeting civilians in Ukraine or Chechnya, supporting the Bashar al-Assad’s brutal actions against his own people in Syria, assassinating political opponents abroad, or using fronts such as the Wagner Group to shield its malign activities from public view,” said Congressman Jared Golden
Volodymyr Zelenskyy: ‘Never yet in history was united Europe as strong as it is today’
“Today, we see the historically important results of dialogue in Europe, between Europeans. We see actions that have made Europe unprecedentedly stronger. Never yet in history was united Europe as strong as it is today. So, focus on everything that is needed to prevent the Russian terrorists from destroying our lives. This is the power of dialogue,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said to Assembly members this morning in his address to the PACE Autumn plenary session.
Together, he added, “we are isolating Russia. Together we are punishing it for the terror and making it feel the price of the war it has unleashed. Thanks to our dialogue we have very important programmes of support for Ukraine. Defence programmes, financial support, programmes to support Ukrainians, the ones who had to flee their homeland to save themselves from hostilities…”.
This dialogue must continue, Mr Zelenskyy stressed, “to make Russia responsible as the aggressor state, and every Russian murderer and butcher for all the crimes of this war, for every manifestation of their terror. When legal mechanisms are created, when they start working, this will become one of the most powerful guarantees for long-term peace.” Europe can play “a historic role in creating a special tribunal for Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Let’s do it. It will be the best way to protect the principles of international law,” he said.
Thanking the Ukrainian President for his intervention before the Assembly, PACE President Tiny Kox said: “The applause you just received shows how much we appreciate your courage, your determination, but also your wise words and the wisdom that you shared with us on how to bring this war to an end as soon as possible and to restore justice, national sovereignty, and the territorial integrity of your country.”
“We all consider Russia’s unilateral aggression as an attack against the multilateral cooperation that is meant to protect all our citizens in Europe. That is why we try to do whatever is in our mandate to support your country and your citizens in these most challenging and dangerous times”, Mr Kox added.
The International Working Group on Russian Sanctions concluded that Designating the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism may increase pressure on Russia dramatically.
“Given that Russia’s continued atrocities committed inside Ukraine are designed deliberately to terrorize the Ukrainian people, the designation of the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism is a commensurate, proportional response. Failure to do so would be an inadequate response. Unfortunately, despite Ukraine’s successes to date in resisting the invasion and the impacts from the extensive sanctions implemented to date, Russian military and irregular forces are continuing to terrorize Ukrainian civilians every day. It is therefore imperative, and urgent, for the free world to ratchet up sanctions even further as a means to constrain Putin’s ability to continue his invasion, stop his annexation, and increase pressure on Russia to end the war and withdraw from Ukraine. The time for incrementalism is over. Small tweaks and limited expansions of existing sanctions are an inappropriate response to the ongoing horrors of Putin’s barbaric attacks against Ukrainian civilians. It is time to ratchet up the pressure on Russia dramatically. Designating the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism would do just
Russia was accused of war crimes, human rights violations and a “rampage” across Georgia during the military conflict in 2008.
In closing evidence before the European court of human rights in Strasbourg, the Georgian government said Moscow was guilty of multiple violations during the fighting in August 2008.

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