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The European Parliament designated Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, arguing that its military strikes on Ukrainian civilian targets such as energy infrastructure, hospitals, schools and shelters violated international law.

The Kremlin has had close ties with countries that are already on the list of state sponsors of terrorism, including the Syrian regime. A United Nations report released in 2020 concluded that the Russian military had launched attacks in Syria against civilians that amounted to war crimes.

Russia reportedly has also attempted to assassinate its own dissidents and spies in foreign countries. A 2016 New York Times story stated, “No other major power employs murder as systematically and ruthlessly as Russia does against those seen as betraying its interests abroad. Killings outside Russia were even given legal sanction by the nation’s Parliament in 2006.”

Furthermore, the Russian army has committed other war crimes, including targeting civilians, summary executions, and murder.

Russia is surprisingly straightforward, Russia has killed dissidents in multiple countries-a form of international terrorism in that it involves violent activity outside Russia, a political motive, and a broader goal of intimidating other dissidents.

Russia also supports violent groups on the ground that use terrorism. In Syria, Russian military forces have worked closely with the Lebanese Hezbollah, which the United States has long described as one of the world’s leading terrorist groups, to fight the enemies of the Assad regime. In Ukraine, Russia has backed anti-regime separatist militias with money, training, weapons, and direct military support, and some of these groups have used violence against civilians – notably the downing in 2014 of a Malaysian commercial flight that killed all 298 people aboard.

The commander of U.S. forces said in March that Russia is arming the Taliban in Afghanistan, and U.S. soldiers are dying as a result.

Russia’s bombing of civilians in Syria, for example, deserves even more condemnation than it has received. In Syria, Russia is backing a murderous regime that slaughters its own civilians, even to the point of using chemical weapons against them.

Influencing a civil war usually requires the threat or use of military force, training and support programs for militant groups, or significant financial support for a state.

Russia might increase support to anti-U.S. regimes and groups, use its supply of gas to disrupt the economies of pro-U.S. neighbors, and make situation worse.

Also Wagner group (sanctioned entity by the US) is involved in many terror activities. The private Russian military force, which has close ties to President Vladimir Putin and has been used in war zones across the world, is expanding its presence in Ukraine.

The entity first emerged in 2014, during Russia’s annexation of Crimea. The U.S. government has said that the organization is financed by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and a close associate of Mr. Putin. He has been referred to as “Putin’s chef” because of his catering business, which has staged elaborate state banquets for Mr. Putin.

The group reportedly took its name from the nom de guerre of its leader, Dmitry Utkin, a retired Russian military officer. Mr. Utkin is said to have chosen Wagner to honor the composer, who was a favorite of Hitler’s. Despite the Kremlin’s denial of any ties to Wagner, Mr. Utkin has been photographed next to Mr. Putin.

The group is not registered as a legal entity anywhere in the world.

They are involved in Syria, Libya, Central African Republic and Ukraine, Wagner operatives have also fought in Sudan, Mali and Mozambique, exerting Russian influence by proxy, doing the bidding of authoritarian leaders and, at times, seizing oil and gas fields or securing other material interests.

Wagner forces have appeared in Ukraine, presumably to fight alongside Russian troops in Mr. Putin’s war. The number of Wagner troops in the country has more than tripled to over 1,000. Their presence, in the eastern region known as Donbas that is home to Russia-backed separatist groups, raises concerns, given the group’s history. U.N. investigators and rights groups say Wagner troops have targeted civilians, conducted mass executions and looted private property in conflict zones.

The group has been accused of war crimes in Africa, Syria and Ukraine, the group is already sanctioned by the US.