Russia, a Terrorist State

"An explosion jolted me awake at 5 a.m. I understood that it was the beginning of the end."

"I was on the sofa when I heard a loud noise and saw the window shatter against the wall. Then the pieces hit me ..."

"After I got covered in broken glass, there was total silence for, like, 10 seconds."

"Then I heard the cries of the wounded."

Olena Kurylo, 53, teacher, Kharkiv, Ukraine

 

"The practical case to list Russia I think is inarguable."

"The Russian regime ought to be in that club of ignominy that has [Syrian President] Bashar Al Assad and the Iranian regime in it."

"That is the company in which they belong."

Orest Zakydalsky, senior policy adviser, Ukrainian Canadian Congress

"I think this would put us even more squarely in the territory of reprisals by Russia."

"It certainly raises risks for Canadian businesses abroad..."

"I'm not convinced that the benefits outweigh the risks."

William Pellerin, partner, McMillan LLP law firm

"What we have found is that Ukrainians are possessing a will and spirit that a good portion of folks just did not take into account." Senior military official  U.S.Department of Defense

 

Only the blind -- physically or ideologically incapable of discerning reality -- would argue against the obvious, that Russia chose to wage an  unprovoked war of aggression against its neighbour. That Russia deliberately and repeatedly targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure for maximum terrorism effect in its no-holds-barred drive to execute a swift 'victory' over Ukraine. The evidence is there to show that Ukrainians have been the victims of war crimes, ranging from torture to systematic rape, to mass murder.

There is now a move afoot in Canada, where the third largest demographic of individuals of Ukrainian origin -- after Ukraine itself and Russia -- live as Ukrainian-Canadian citizens, to have Russia declared a terrorist state and be placed on a list recognizing them as such alongside other countries that support terrorists and themselves act as such; Iran and Syria. Canada's current finance minister and deputy prime minister is of Ukrainian extraction.

Those who hesitate over the potential ramifications, including cutting off diplomatic relations are not so eager to make that declaration official. Canada has previously announced plans to confiscate assets of sanctioned Russian nationals' investments and properties in Canada, and to use those funds to help Ukraine in its battle for survival and future reconstruction. It seems fitting to even the most jaundiced eye that the aggressor deliberately destroying vital national infrastructure be responsible in reparations for its rebuilding.

Canada, like other countries supportive of Ukraine against Russia has imposed an array of economjc measures against Moscow, along with sanctioning individuals and corporations of Russian origins and status supporting Moscow. And while the government itself has indicated no interest in committing to branding Russia the terrorist state that it has become under Vladimir Putin, many Members of Parliament and Senators took part in a NATO resolution which its parliamentarians passed unanimously encouraging member countries to "state clearly that the Russian state under the current regime is a terrorist one".

Resolutions calling for governments to declare Russia a state sponsor of terror have been passed by the European Parliament and both houses of U.S. Congress. The Canadian government position  on the issue, according to the Foreign Affairs minister's press secretary is that it considers Russia to be guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity and plans to hold Moscow to account, but declines to declare it formally a terrorist state.

Canada is supporting cases before the International Court of Justice and International Criminal Court, dispatching specialized RCMP officers to assist in investigations at the Criminal Court, and imposing sanctions against 3,200 individuals and entities ... but a declaration affirming Russia as a terrorist state is a goal too far for this Liberal government. 

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress recently polled MPs to reveal support on Parliament Hill for a Russia terrorist declaration found a tepid response. The State Immunity Act brought to law by the previous Conservative government declares a "state supporter" is a country that provides financing or certain other assistance to listed terrorist groups; with terrorism itself clarified as the unlawful use of violence, particularly against civilians, to further political goals.

Russia, on the record, deliberately targets civilian areas with artillery, aerial bombing, missiles and explosive drones which have killed thousands of non-combatants since the beginning of the invasion. Systemic execution of civilians in places such as Bucha have been documented by war crimes investigators and the media. Evidence of widespread rape and torture has been found. 

The Russian Wagner Group of mercenaries have a terrorist function in full support of the Russian military. A motion was recently passed declaring the Wagner Group a terrorist entity in the Canadian House of Commons. Well before the invasion of Ukraine Russian agents targeted dissidents abroad with the use of radioactive substances and poisons. A Russian Buk missile was supplied to the Crimean/Donbas (Luhansk and Donetsk regions) ethnic Russian dissidents claiming east Ukraine for Russia, that shot down a Malaysian passenger jet with the death of all aboard.

Finally, the Russian air fleet is providing cover for the Syrian military targeting its Sunni Syrian rebel factions named by the Syrian regime as 'terrorists' for protesting against their inferior second-tier status in Syria as a majority while the minority Shiite Alawite Baathists rule the country. In northern Syria Russian war planes bomb hospitals and civilian enclaves, just as they are doing in Ukraine. Case closed.

"Last spring, the Russian military went after apartment blocks and public buildings in Kharkiv, killing hundreds; in March, a Russian airstrike destroyed a theatre in Mariupol that was sheltering children, murdering as many as 600 innocent people in what Amnesty International has called a “clear war crime”; the Russians have bombed a train station and a shopping mall, knowing full well that people were inside, trying to live their lives. The United Nations has confirmed that there have been about 7,000 civilian deaths in Ukraine – but acknowledge that the real figure is certainly much higher."

Gary Maston, national affairs columnist,The Globe and Mail, January 17, 2023

Russia is a state supporter of terrorism as it both supports individuals and entities that have carried out terrorist activities and engages in such activities itself. Toronto Star

"[Te two nations have already] crossed the Rubicon [diplomatically speaking; maintaining Canada's Moscow mission in an open state is unlikely to have any impact on Vladimir Putin's decision-making]."

"This is a generational challenge, this is not a six-month thing."

"This war is not going to be over for a long while and our problems with Russia will remain as long as Putin remains in power."

Balkan Devlin, fellow, Russia expert, Macdonald Laurier Institute