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West tries to label Russia "terrorism sponsor" to hide its own problems — Security Council

According to Yury Kokov, "such initiatives are apparently designed to somehow distract attention and compensate for disappointment with the results of the sanctions imposed on Russia"

MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. The attempts to label Russia as "terrorism sponsor" are intended to distract attention from the failed Western sanctions, the deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, Yuri Kokov, said in an interview published by Rossiyskaya Gazeta on Tuesday.

"As for the calls for recognizing Russia as a "state sponsor of terrorism", I think that it is hardly reasonable to comment on actions by individuals who, apparently, are not in their right mind. Who are driven by an obsession with their own exclusiveness and permissiveness, while completely ignoring legal norms and common sense," he said.

Kokov stressed that "such initiatives are apparently designed to somehow distract attention and compensate for disappointment with the results of the sanctions imposed on Russia."

"I would like to draw attention to the consistent and legally well-founded position of our country on this issue. We oppose the doctrine of ‘state terrorism,’ used by some countries to excuse illegal interference in the internal affairs of other states. Also, we classify terrorism and related acts as criminal offences. By the way, this position is also supported by international courts," he added.

On July 27, the US Senate passed a resolution calling on the Department of State to recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. In the document, the events in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine were mentioned as the reason. Earlier, Kiev asked Washington to include Russia in the list. On July 28, a group of Congress members from both parties declared their intention to submit a similar resolution to the House of Representatives. At the same time, US President Joe Biden responded negatively to the question whether he considered it necessary to include Russia in the US list of state sponsors of terrorism.