Should the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Militias Be Designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations?
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 2 November 2022
⏱️ 42 minutes
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Summary
Last week, Lawfare published a piece by Lawfare’s legal fellow Saraphin Dhanani called, “The Case for Designating the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Militias as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.” The article considered whether the Russian-backed militias operating in the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk can be properly designated as FTOs, and whether they should be.
Lawfare executive editor Natalie Orpett sat down with Saraphin and with Lawfare’s editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes, who has also been giving this topic a lot of thought. They discussed the legal requirements for FTO designation, how such a designation would interact with the existing sanctions regime the United States has imposed in response to Russia's war in Ukraine, and what impact FTO designations might have on the conflict.
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| 1:08.0 | Those people would be deterred from providing material support |
| 1:14.0 | if suddenly they were caught up in the United States' jurisdictional remit. |
| 1:18.0 | I think that that risk is so high, |
| 1:22.0 | and the United States has extradition treaties with almost every country around the world, |
| 1:28.0 | that it would deter their material support to the Donutsk and the Hansk people's militias. |
| 1:34.0 | If the United States wanted to impose, let's say, secondary sanctions or secondary designations on these people, |
| 1:41.0 | it wouldn't have the resources to do so. |
| 1:43.0 | It would take too long, whereas I think the FTO designation casts a wide net, |
| 1:49.0 | and it ensures that a lot of people who, what otherwise not be sanctioned, |
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