Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who called on the US government to designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism last week, has been added to the Moscow’s list of extremists and terrorists, local media reported on Tuesday.
Graham is entry number 3967, according to the Federal Financial Monitoring Service, the Russian agency responsible for the list. The database does not cite specific reasons why entities or individuals are included.
Lindsey’s remarks came on Sunday in response to the news about the death of Russian opposition figure Alexey Navalny. Speaking to the CBS program Face the Nation, the lawmaker proposed the designation as a way of making Russians “pay a price for killing Navalny.”
The Russian prison service reported that the inmate, who was serving a term for several separate criminal convictions, collapsed after a routine walk during the day. Medics’ attempts to save his life had proven futile, the statement released on Friday said.
No autopsy results have been released so far. The Russian government cited a rush by Western politicians to blame Moscow for his death as evidence of their bias.
Graham is a vocal proponent of a hawkish approach to foreign policy. Last year, the Republican hailed US military aid provided to Ukraine as “the best money we’ve ever spent,” while visiting Kiev.
The claim sparked a media scandal at the time, after the office of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky edited Graham’s remarks to make it appear like he was describing the killing of Russians by Ukrainians, which wasn’t the case. Graham did, however, suggest that Russians dying at the hands of Ukrainians on the battlefield was a good thing.
The Russian Investigative Committee has opened a criminal case against Graham over the May 2023 episode. The Interior Ministry consequently put the American on the wanted list.
The South Carolina senator now stands with most of his Republican peers in the Ukraine-skeptical camp of the US Congress and has spoken against providing Kiev with continued funding.
”I’m not helping Ukraine until we help ourselves,” the senator told CNN in December, as the administration of President Joe Biden was urging lawmakers to provide Ukraine with a second military aid package, worth tens of billions of dollars.