Sen. Lindsey Graham mocks Russia after he’s added to Putin’s terror list: ‘There goes all my rubles!’
Sen. Lindsey Graham appeared unfazed after Russian President Vladimir Putin added the South Carolina Republican to his “terrorists and extremists” list Tuesday, and even joked about the significance of the label.
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.
“There goes all my rubles!” Graham wrote on X, reacting to a news report that Rosfinmonitoring – Russia’s financial watchdog – had designated him a “terrorist.”
Graham, a long-time Russia hawk, then doubled down on his push to name the country a sponsor of terrorism.
“I call your ‘terrorists and extremists’ bid and raise you ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism under U.S. law,’” the senator wrote. “Believe it or not, 2024 is going to be a bad year for Putin’s Russia.”
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.
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.
After receiving treatment in Germany, Navalny, 47, returned to Russia where he was immediately arrested and held in custody ever since.
In naming Graham a terrorist, Russian state media cited a misleading May 2023 video put out by Ukraine in which the US lawmaker purportedly said that “Russians dying” is “the best money the US has ever spent” during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Graham indicated that his remarks were taken out of context and a Newsweek investigation found that the senator’s “best money we ever spent” comment was not related to a previous remark about “Russians dying.”