# Rusal Russia's aluminum giant, controlled through the holding company En+ Group by [[Oleg Deripaska]] — the oligarch who had employed [[Paul Manafort]]. It is in the vault as the cleanest case of **Trump-era sanctions relief for a Kremlin-connected oligarch**, whipped through the Senate by [[Mitch McConnell]], followed within three months by a Rusal investment announced for McConnell's home state. ## Sanctioned, then delisted | Date | Event | |---|---| | Apr 2018 | Treasury sanctions Deripaska, En+, Rusal and the power company EuroSibEnergo | | Dec 19, 2018 | Treasury under [[Steven Mnuchin]] notifies Congress it intends to lift sanctions on the companies | | The plan | Deripaska's En+ stake falls from 70% to 44.95%, his votes capped at 35%, a trustee votes a further 9.95% with the other shareholders, VTB and Glencore take stakes, and a majority of directors are independent and vetted by OFAC | | Jan 16, 2019 | A Senate motion to block the delisting gets **57 votes, three short of 60**; eleven Republicans vote yes, and Chuck Schumer says McConnell "put a lot of pressure" on Republicans to vote no | | Jan 27, 2019 | Treasury delists En+, Rusal and EuroSibEnergo. **Deripaska himself stays sanctioned** | ## The Kentucky mill On April 15, 2019, Rusal announced a **$200 million investment for 40%** of Braidy Industries' planned aluminum rolling mill in Ashland, Kentucky. The mill was never built. Rusal suspended its investment in March 2021 after putting in at least $65 million, and in September 2022 Kentucky recovered the $15 million the state had invested. The timing — a Senate vote McConnell whipped, then an investment in his state — is the documented part; a direct deal between the two is alleged, not established. ## Did the restructuring work? In 2026 Sweden's tax authority called the 2019 arrangement "a sham," arguing that a Putin decree voiding votes held by "unfriendly" shareholders had lifted Deripaska's effective control back above 70%. Rusal's side answered in August 2026 that the claim rests on "presumptions." In July 2026 the EU General Court rejected Deripaska's own challenge to his EU listing. Rusal itself is not under EU or U.S. sanctions, and Ireland is under growing pressure over the Rusal-owned Aughinish alumina refinery, which kept shipping to Rusal entities. ## Why it matters here A sanctioned oligarch kept control of his company, the U.S. lifted the sanctions on the company anyway, the Senate majority leader held the line for the decision, and a Rusal investment was then announced for his state. That is the [[Russian Oligarchy]] problem in miniature: sanctions aimed at a person can be defeated by restructuring the paperwork around him. ## See Also - [[Oleg Deripaska]] · [[Paul Manafort]] - [[Mitch McConnell]] · [[Steven Mnuchin]] - [[Office of Foreign Assets Control]] · [[Sanctions Designation Pipeline]] - [[Russian Oligarchy]]