WASHINGTON—The Trump administration branded a Russian white supremacist group and its top members as global terrorists on Monday, making use of a tool normally used to target radical Islamist groups overseas.

The designation named the Russian Imperial Movement, or RIM, a Russia-based organization with ties to European and U.S.-based white supremacists, as special designated global terrorists. the State Department said. Three senior RIM members were also designated.

The State Department said the designation aimed to curb a global rise in attacks linked to white supremacists who target religious and ethnic minority groups. It was the first time a white supremacist group has been designated as a SDGT, it said in a statement.

“This group has innocent blood on its hands,” top U.S. counterterrorism envoy Nathan Sales told reporters on Monday, linking RIM to terrorist incidents in Sweden.