The Republican Study Committee (RSC) – the largest caucus of conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives – released on Wednesday, June 10, The RSC National Security Strategy: Strengthening America & Countering Global Threats
The proposal offers over 130 solutions to counter America's most aggressive global adversaries, including the toughest sanctions ever proposed by Congress against Russia and the Putin regime, the Chinese Communist Party, and Iran.
The summary of the RSC document has a section entitled "Russia: Rolling Back Aggression Through a Strategy of Deterrence".
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With the aim of "stopping Putin's aggression", the strategy offers "designating Russia as a State Sponsor of Terrorism".
"The list of aggressive Russian behavior in recent years is long. For instance, under Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime, Russia has invaded and annexed parts of its neighbors (Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014), engaged in disinformation campaigns to undermine democratic elections in many Western democracies – including the United States, used military grade chemical weapons for assassination purposes, coordinated militarily in Syria with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah, and supported the Taliban in Afghanistan," reads the RSC National Security Strategy.
Also, the document offers putting forward "the toughest package of sanctions on Russia ever proposed by Congress, including secondary sanctions on Russian oil and gas projects, sanctions on Russian sovereign debt, sanctions on Russian proxies in other countries".
"The United States does not control SWIFT, but it can use its influence to remove Russia from SWIFT through legislation authorizing sanctions on SWIFT itself if it does not expel Russia," the strategy says.
The document also stresses the need to "communicate with the Russian people".
It would call for the creation of a strategy to communicate "directly to the Russian people and support their aspirations for democracy and human rights".
