The Russian government has added U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to its “terrorists and extremists” list.

Russian state-owned news agency TASS first reported the move by Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s state financial monitoring agency.

“The Rosfinmonitoring list includes more than 12,000 individuals and more than 400 companies, as well as domestic and foreign terrorist entities and Russian political opposition groups, according to the website opensanctions.org,” The Guardian reports.

In Graham’s case, the move is symbolic.

“There goes all my rubles!” Graham wrote.

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From The Guardian:

Graham, a South Carolina senator and foreign policy hawk who has long advocated arming Ukraine against Russian invaders, has also been subject to a Russian arrest warrant, for making “Russophobic statements” during a visit to Kyiv.

“It’s difficult to imagine a greater shame for a country than having such senators,” Dmitry Peskov, the Russian government spokesperson, said at the time.

Graham responded to the warrant by telling Reuters: “As usual the Russia propaganda machine is hard at work. It has been a good investment by the United States to help liberate Ukraine from Russian war criminals.” He said he would “wear the arrest warrant issued by Putin’s corrupt and immoral government as a badge of honour”.

“The designation, reported by Russian state media, comes after Graham, 68, blamed Putin for the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and urged President Biden to place Russia on the US list of state sponsors of terrorism,” the New York Post wrote.

The New York Post reports:

Graham went on to list a series of policy goals the US should pursue this year in order to weaken the Kremlin, including adding “more aid to Ukraine,” “more high-end weapons that can reach out and touch the Russian occupiers” and the “expansion of NATO.”

On Sunday, the South Carolina senator placed blame directly on Putin, 71, for Navalny’s death in a remote Russian penal colony last week.

“Navalny was one of the bravest people I ever met,” Graham said during an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“When he went back to Russia he had to know he was going to be killed by Putin, and he was murdered by Putin,” he added.

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Graham also implored Biden, 81, to make Putin “pay a price” for Navalny’s death.

Navalny, a longtime critic of Putin and a married father of two, was previously poisoned by a nerve agent in Siberia in 2020.

 

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