{"id":100255,"date":"2018-04-19T17:09:52","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T23:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-cory-gardner-consider-labeling-russia-a-state-sponsor-of-terrorism\/"},"modified":"2018-04-19T17:09:52","modified_gmt":"2018-04-19T23:09:52","slug":"sen-cory-gardner-consider-labeling-russia-a-state-sponsor-of-terrorism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sen-cory-gardner-consider-labeling-russia-a-state-sponsor-of-terrorism\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Cory Gardner: Consider labeling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Russian
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a ceremony of receiving credentials from foreign ambassadors April 11 in the Kremlin in Moscow. Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner wants the U.S. to name Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

WASHINGTON \u2013 Colorado Republican U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner on Thursday reiterated a call from earlier in the week for the State Department to explore labeling Russia a state sponsor of terrorism.<\/p>\n

The legislation, which Gardner initially discussed in a Fox News interview, would direct the State Department to investigate Russian sponsorship of terrorism and report back to Congress within 90 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s time to very concisely and clearly lay out the grievances the world has with Russia right now \u2013 in a frame not of \u2018oh, it\u2019s aggression\u2019 \u2013 but as a bad actor doing evil things,\u201d Gardner said during an interview with The Durango Herald on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n

Gardner referred to a long list of actions taken by the Russians both in the last decade and in recent weeks. He pointed to Russia\u2019s 2008 invasion of Georgia, the 2014 invasion of Ukraine, which he called a \u201cviolation of international law,\u201d and the recent poisonings and murders of dissidents in Russia and other European countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time we give serious consideration to stepping up toward Russia in a way that we have not done yet,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cVladimir Putin clearly understands strength and he manipulates weakness. The United States, our partners and allies must show total strength against this Russian menace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The goal of potentially labeling Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism, Gardner said, is to highlight the actions Russia has taken around the globe and to demonstrate to the world \u201cthat we don\u2019t turn a blind eye to these egregious actions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis gives us a battery of options, sanctions, other measures we can use to counter that behavior and deal with continuing efforts to undermine our democracy,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

According to the State Department, once a country is labeled a state sponsor of terror, four main categories of sanctions will be implemented. The United States restricts foreign assistance, bans defense exports and sales to the country, implements export controls of items that serve both a military and civilian purpose and enforces other financial restrictions.<\/p>\n

\"Gardner\"
Gardner<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Gardner sees North Korea\u2019s addition to the list in 2017 as credible justification for potentially labeling Russia as such, and that is why he wants to direct the State Department to investigate Russian\u2019s involvement in terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the reasons they were named a state sponsor of terror was because they used a chemical agent to kill a North Korean citizen on foreign soil,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

Gardner was referring to the assassination of Kim Jong-nam, the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, with a chemical agent while he was traveling through a Malaysian airport in 2017.<\/p>\n

Russia recently used a chemical agent in an attempt to assassinate a former clandestine operative in the United Kingdom, an action Gardner said provides good reason to investigate the state sponsor label because of its similarity to North Korean actions.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Both administrations) hesitated for a very long time on (naming) North Korea,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cI think even the process of this will be a healthy exercise in order to highlight Russian activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assessment ultimately has to come from the State Department. The path forward on the bill is uncertain. Even if passed by Congress, the bill would head to the desk of a president, who has been reluctant to sign and implement previous sanctions against the Russians, even though they had broad support among both Democrats and Republicans. The sanctions are a significant step down from the label of state sponsor of terrorism.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe signed (the sanctions), but he didn\u2019t want to,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cThat\u2019s why I think if we get significant support out of this, he would sign it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gardner has not yet engaged with anyone in the administration about the legislation, which he said is still being written. He said in a Fox News interview Tuesday that the bill would direct the State Department to make a determination within 90 days.<\/p>\n

The United States has sanctioned Russia for decades but turned up diplomatic and economic pressures after Russia\u2019s invasion of Crimea in 2014. If the State Department officially labeled Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, it would be a significant step up from sanctions.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would put Russia in a category that it\u2019s never been before,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cIt would be a significant diplomatic black eye for Russia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The U.S. currently has 28 active sanction programs against various countries around the globe, according to the Treasury Department. The State Department labels only four as state sponsors of terrorism: Syria, North Korea, Iran and Sudan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not exactly company you want to keep,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

Relations between the U.S. and Russia already are frayed over Russia\u2019s election meddling and support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who also recently attacked his own citizens with chemical weapons. How Russia would respond to such a label is uncertain, but Gardner is unconcerned.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf this means that Russia gets mad at us for their engagement in Ukraine and Georgia, so be it,\u201d Gardner said.<\/p>\n

The State Department could find that Russia is not a state sponsor of terror as a result of its investigation, but Gardner\u2019s vision is clear.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be eyes open on this and clear,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cThis is also a public naming and shaming of Russia in a way that simply hasn\u2019t been done before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Eversden is an intern for The Durango Herald and a student at American University in Washington, D.C.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Vladimir Putin clearly understands strength and he manipulates weakness\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,4336,24],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-international-relations","tag-u-s-sen-cory-gardner"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100255"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}