“Putin is a thug, and a bully, and he will continue being an increasing threat to Europe and the world unless he is stopped,” said Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal as he announced the introduction of the resolution with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham in Washington on Tuesday.
“If there is anybody who embodies terrorism, and totalitarianism and tyranny, it’s Putin,” Blumenthal told reporters, as quoted by broadcaster CNBC.
The resolution, which comes in response to a request for such a move by Ukraine, would ask US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia a "state sponsor of terrorism," CNBC reported on its website.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last month renewed his plea for Russia to be designated as a terrorist state.
Zelensky said in a video message at the time that "Russia must be recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism, and the Russian Armed Forces must be recognized as a terrorist organization."
Zelensky last month asked the United States to label Russia a state sponsor of terrorism in a phone call with President Joe Biden, according to the Washington Post.
The label can be applied to any country that has "repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism," the newspaper has reported.
According to the Reuters news agency, the list currently includes four countries, North Korea, Cuba, Iran and Syria.
Biden has described Russia's actions in Ukraine as amounting to genocide.
Lithuanian lawmakers on Tuesday voted unanimously to label Moscow's assault on Ukraine as "genocide" and to denounce Russia as "a state that supports and perpetrates terrorism."
In a major speech in Warsaw in late March, Biden told the world that Vladimir Putin should no longer remain in power amid Russia's brutal war against Ukraine.
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Source: PAP, CNBC