MEPs of the European Parliament’s main political groups backed, in the evening of Tuesday 18 October, the classification of Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Only the Irish MEP, Claire Daly, for The Left, rejected the term. The Parliament will vote on a resolution to this effect in November.
In the debate, Andrzej Halicki (Polish), on behalf of the EPP, called on Member State governments to recognise Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism, as a terrorist state”. “We must speak with one voice. Do we need more victims to call Russia a terrorist state?”, he asked.
Similarly, Petras Auštrevičius (Renew Europe, Lithuanian) said that there was “enough evidence to say that Russia is engaging in state terrorism as part of its war”.
“Terrorism is, and I quote, ‘the unauthorised use of violence against civilians for political purposes’. Nothing would describe what is happening in Ukraine better than the word terrorism”, added Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (Greens/EFA, German), who said that “Russia should be treated like other terrorists”.
For Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spanish), Russia supports and finances terrorist activities on European soil, while for Charlie Weimers (ECR, Swedish), in recent decades Russia has waged terror, targeted people indiscriminately in Georgia, Chechnya, Syria and Ukraine, and supported the financing of terrorist regimes and organisations in the Middle East and Latin America. “It is time to recognise Russia for what it is: a pariah, a threat, a rogue state and a state sponsor of terrorism, and that must come with consequences”, he said.
Commissioner Ylva Johansson recalled that the EU has no legal framework to say that a third country is a supporter of terrorism.
On 13 October, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe declared the current Russian regime as a “terrorist” one (see EUROPE 13042/4). (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)