“No.” That was President Joe Biden’s response earlier this month when a reporter asked whether the Russian Federation should be added to the Department of State’s “sponsors of terrorism” list. Biden’s terse reply was disappointing, particularly when there is bipartisan support in Congress for adding Russia to the rolls of repressive regimes that have previously been declared terrorist states.
The executive branch despises being pressured on terrorist sanction issues. I know because for more than 10 years — as head of the department office responsible for deciding who should be added to the list — I directly observed how dismissive we were when the legislative branch tried to compel us to designate as terrorist groups the Islamic extremist organization Boko Haram and the Haqqani network, a powerful offshoot of the Taliban.
A similar adversarial bureaucratic knife fight is playing out today with Russia — and Biden’s one-word rejection will not help the executive branch preserve its highly prized flexibility. The administration fears that adding Russia to the state-sponsored terrorism list will limit options on how to resolve the Ukrainian conflict and other highly contentious bilateral issues.
