SANCTIONED RUSSIAN OLIGARCH'S COMPANY TO INVEST MILLIONS IN NEW ALUMINUM PLANT IN MITCH MCCONNELL'S STATE
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Rusal, the aluminum company partially owned by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, announced plans to invest around $200 million to build a new aluminum plant in Kentucky just months after the Trump administration removed it from the U.S. sanctions list.
The new aluminum plant, slated to be built in the home state of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, will be the biggest new aluminum plant constructed in the U.S. in decades. Rusal will have a 40 percent stake in the facility.
"Rusal, one of the leading global aluminium producers, and Braidy Industries Inc., a U.S. base holding company which owns both Veloxint, an MIT-incubated lightweighting solutions company, and NanoAl, a Northwestern University incubated materials research and technology company, announce an intent to establish a joint project in Ashland, Kentucky, USA to produce flat-rolled aluminium products for the U.S. automotive industry," according to a company press release.
The U.S. removed Rusal from its sanctions list in January, after the Treasury Department struck an agreement with the company that saw Deripaska, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reduce his stake in the company to below 50 percent and lower his voting rights to below 35. The agreement requires the companies to report any contact between Deripaska and company affiliates, including members of the board.
Also on Monday, the public affairs company Mercury, which was hired by British Lord Gregory Barker to lobby for the oligarch's companies to be removed from the U.S. sanctions list, filed a letter under the Foreign Agents Registration Act describing how "the Barker plan permanently removed Oleg Deripaska from control" of his companies EN+ and Rusal. Barker is the executive chairman of Rusal and its parent company EN+.
"The Board will be two-thirds/one-third independent of Deripaska, Deripaska will not receive any dividends for as long as he remains subject to sanctions, and the Company and its operations will remain under the scrutiny of U.S. regulators," the document reads. "The agreement will allow the world's second largest producer of aluminum to stay out of Russian state or Chinese ownership."
Still, analysts have expressed concern that Deripaska, who was sanctioned in April 2018 for attempting to meddle in the U.S. elections, may still wield influence over his companies from behind the scenes.
The agreement struck with the Treasury Department gave the Swiss commodities firm Glencore, a company that has done business with Deripaska for years and whose CEO previously sat on Rusal's board, some of Deripaska's lost shares. The Russian bank VTB, nicknamed Putin's piggy bank, also got a stake in Deripaska's companies. Some experts have claimed that it is possible Deripaska could use his ties with these companies to exert some influence over Rusal.
Meanwhile, at least one of the trustees that the Office of Foreign Assets Control appointed to ensure that Deripaska does not exercise influence on the company's board is linked to a law firm that has worked with the oligarch and his companies for years.
Earlier this month, The New York Times reported the Treasury Department had allowed around $78 million worth of company shares to be transferred to a trust fund belonging to Deripaska's children, despite a previous statement from Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin claiming that the oligarch's children would "in no way benefit" from sanctions relief.
Photo: Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska speaks to the media outside his carmaker GAZ plant in Nizhny Novgorod on April 16, 2019. KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
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Isn't that convenient. Push to lift sanctions then have them do business in your state.
Moscow Mitch isn't even trying to hide his crooked ways any more.
his nickname in DC is Mitch the bitch. Bwah ha ha ha
I wonder if the deal came with a case of turtle wax.
And some kick backs.
That's why he's protecting Rump. He's complicit in Russian meddling just like the majority of the gop Congress, his cabinet and everyone in his administration. The gang of thugs, gangsters, grifters, thieves, corrupt traitorous scum
Everything seems above board to me. What's wrong with a Senator bringing jobs o his home state? That's what democrats should be doing.
McConnell sold out the integity of US elections for his personal gain!
He went way too far this time...
He did? Could you explain how?
Sorry, the closest thing I can say to anything intelligent about Russian oligarchs is "rat bastards".
Putin is widely reputed to secretly be the world's first trillionaire aka The #1 Oligarch!
His net worth is publicly listed at 70 billion. But I have no doubt that he has hidden money somewhere that is not reported just like his butt buddy most likely does.
In additon to a proposed $15 million in tax breaks there is a lot of other interesting information..
Gotta laugh at their hypocrisy. Everything should be privately owned and run yet here we have republicans having a state owning part of industry.
Yes, have to laugh at the hypocrisy of Democrats wanting the government to have a share in industry; and how it is run- yet are bitching over this deal? Forgetting Obama's car battery plants that didn't produce batteries? Of course with those the government got nothing back in return.
The area this facility is being built is in desperate need of jobs. The $15 million investment was from a fund to promote new business ventures in the state. There will be tax breaks on top of that; but so what? The state would be paying out unemployment to those individuals- possibly other assistance programs as well; and no tax revenue what-so-ever would be coming in. This is a gain for both the area and the state.
Also from the linked article the Department of Treasury at any time can put the sanctions back on the Russian company; if the restructure turns out not to be true.
Desperate need of jobs? Doesn't trump tout best unemployment numbers in history? We are doing better than ever....The economy is the best it has ever been....
Yet talk about the state owning industry, something republicans hate and call socialism, are doing what they profess to be against...and the the sudden this area is destitute and in desperate need.
Then go on to say that what Obama did was bad and still champion this. Also a grant is not ownership as it is here.
This oligarch was only taken off sanctions three months ago. How convenient that now all the sudden his company wants to do business in the senate leaders state.
First, that is not a US state having ownership...second it sounds like the two wrongs make a right defence.
No wonder comrade Mitch wants to bury two bills proposing protections for elections from Russian meddling.
Between his close ties to the Russians, and his close ties with the Chinese through his Chinese wife and her contacts with big money and associations through her family, he has been able to get re-elected year after year even though most voters in KY can't stand him. He is totally out for himself and to Hell with the people.
However, one day he will meet his Karma.
He has to be one of the most crooked in DC.
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You are aware that we were attacked by Russian's in the 2016 elections, right?
Remember when the right screamed that Obama did nothing to the Russian's after they attacked us, (and in the same breath said that the Russians didn't attack us at all)? Remember that he kicked them out of the country 48 hours after he was shown the facts? Not only is the right still in denial, (and complaining about Obama...still), they are actually making it easier for Russia to attack us, again. McConnell refuses to do ANYTHING to protect our election process.
But you say it's about jobs? Bullshit.
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Russia did not 'attack' us. What an idiotic assertion. They attempted to influence the election just like China and most advanced countries did. Just like Obama attempted to influence the Israeli election. It goes on all the time and has done so for years.
There is no evidence that any cast votes were altered on changed. Absolutely none. Foreign powers will attempt to influence next years election also via social media and advertising. But that's legal and can't be stopped.
What should alarm and concern Americans more is the left's attempts to overturn elections and influence future ones by making false claims of conspiring with the Russians and whoever.
They hacked into our systems, that's called an attack, Greg. Influenced? And you are ok with that? Do you have any idea how much companies here in the USA spend on advertising? Billions a year. But you don't think that targeted "influencing" has no effect at all? If that's true, why the fuck are companies spending so much on advertising if it has no effect at all? WEIRD, huh Greg?
Also? Quit with the, "well they did it too!!!!!!!!!!", bs.
Um, it's an established fact. Try reading the Mueller report.
I read it and the government has yet to demonstrate that any of this occurred. In fact there is no evidence of Hillary or the DNC being hacked because they refused to let the FBI aces the servers. They asked us to believe a 3rd party hired by the DNC.
So you don't believe ANY of our intel agencies and a few in the UK, that say that Russia did use cyber warfare to attack us?
Then how exactly did Russia come up with those 30k missing emails? Magic?
So if I aim to shoot someone in the head, and I miss, hitting them in the shoulder, I am innocent because I missed my intended target?
WOW!!!!!!!
Why should he? Like you said, they didn't modify or change any votes, so what's the big deal.
You are arguing BOTH side of the issue to fit your agenda and you failed miserably.
Obama kicked the Russian diplomats out of the country 48 hours after he was shown the exact same evidence trumpy was. And where are we now? Trump has yet to even admit that the Russians did anything at all and McConnell is squashing any and all legislation to prevent another attack.
But you are going with...."But.....OBAMA!!!!"
Trump has been POTUS for 3 years, what the fuck has he done to protect our election process?
Not one fucking thing.
They didn't come up with the 30,000 emails Hillary deleted. Please get your facts right.
Correct!
I notice you used the word purview, now part of everyday usage!
So the dept of homeland security serves no purpose?
It's only that the word got over worked during a recent congressional hearing.
Never heard of wikileaks?
Bingo... He always bury's those bills.
trump's russian pals are coming over on the same type of visa that a family member of jared kushner's was busted trying to sell in china.
I am shocked, shocked I tell you. s/
Has everyone totally forgotten about this?
Obama admin. sent taxpayer money to campaign to oust Netanyahu
By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Tuesday, July 12, 2016
The State Department paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayers grants to an Israeli group that used the money to build a campaign to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in last year’s Israeli parliamentary elections, a congressional investigation concluded Tuesday.
Some $350,000 was sent to OneVoice, ostensibly to support the group’s efforts to back Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement negotiations. But OneVoice used the money to build a voter database, train activists and hire a political consulting firm with ties to President Obama’s campaign — all of which set the stage for an anti- Netanyahu campaign, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in a bipartisan staff report.
In one stunning finding, the subcommittee said OneVoice even told the State Department ’s top diplomat in Jerusalem of its plans in an email, but the official, Consul General Michael Ratney , claims never to have seen them.
He said he regularly deleted emails with large attachments — a striking violation of open-records laws for a department already reeling from former Secretary Hillary Clinton’s handling of official government records.
Mr. Netanyahu survived the election, and the U.S. spending was not deemed illegal because the State Department never put any conditions on the money. Investigators also said OneVoice didn’t turn explicitly political until days after the grant period ended.
The "The other guy did it so the new guy should be able to do it also" argument is getting tired. We can't change the past but we can assure changing the present will secure the future. On a side note...ty for your service. My dad was a USMC DI.
Moscow Mitch Has Some Explaining To Do...
Indeed he does!
Sen. Mitch McConnell's net worth: 2005: $2,962,015
2015: $26,927,535
Increase: $23,965,520 (+809.1%)
How does a senator earning $193,400 a year increase their net worth by nearly $2.4 million a year, every year for a decade?