to report back to congress the senator who tabled the bill is convinced russia backs terrorism ludmer putin continues to try to cause grievous harm to international peace and stability and i'm pleased the senate foreign relations committee advanced my critical legislation directing the state department to consider naming russia what they are a state sponsor of terror the proposed legislation will now have to pass the house and the senate before being signed by the president just a week ago the state department said that russia is not a state terrorist sponsor kilmartin looks at the mixed messages. state sponsor of terrorism is a special designation under u.s. law in which a country is subject to specific sanctions and treatment by the united states for allegedly supporting terrorism now the countries that currently have this label are iran north korea syria and sudan cuba had this label until u.s. president barack obama lifted that label against cuba as part of negotiations that took place during his presidency now the allegation seems to be that russia supports terrorism and is worthy of t