# Oleg Deripaska Russian billionaire industrialist (aluminum, energy, construction), founder of RUSAL (world's second-largest aluminum company), and one of the oligarchs most "closely aligned with [[Vladimir Putin]]" per the [[Mueller Investigation]]. Deripaska is the principal on the Russian side of the Manafort-Kilimnik channel — the person [[Konstantin Kilimnik]] proposed giving "private briefings" about the Trump campaign's internal operations. ## The Manafort Relationship [[Paul Manafort]] worked for Deripaska for years before joining the Trump campaign, receiving at least **$10 million** for consulting work described in communications as efforts to "greatly benefit the Putin Government." When Manafort became Trump's campaign chairman in April 2016, he almost immediately reached out to Deripaska through [[Konstantin Kilimnik]], asking: **"How do we use to get whole?"** — widely interpreted as an offer to leverage his campaign position to settle debts or curry favor with Deripaska. Kilimnik subsequently proposed providing Deripaska with "private briefings" on the campaign. The [[Senate Intelligence Committee]] found that Manafort did share **internal campaign polling data** with Kilimnik at their August 2, 2016 meeting at the Grand Havana Room in New York, and that this data was intended to reach Deripaska and other Ukrainian/Russian oligarchs. The Senate Intelligence Committee described this channel as **"the single most direct tie between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services"** — with Deripaska as one of the ultimate intended recipients. ## Kremlin Alignment Deripaska occupies a specific position in Putin's oligarch system: wealthy enough to be useful, loyal enough to be trusted, and dependent enough on Kremlin favor that he cannot act independently. US Treasury sanctions designations have described him as having been "investigated for money laundering" and having "threatened the lives of business rivals, illegally wiretapped a government official, and taken part in extortion and racketeering." His relationship with Russian intelligence services is documented: Deripaska has acknowledged having contacts with Russian intelligence, describing them as a normal part of doing business in Russia. ## Sanctions and US Politics Deripaska was sanctioned by the US Treasury in April 2018 for his Kremlin connections. In January 2019, the Trump Treasury Department partially lifted sanctions on companies controlled by Deripaska — a decision controversial enough to prompt a Senate vote to block it (which narrowly failed). Critics argued the delisting was effectively a concession to Putin; the Treasury maintained Deripaska had sufficiently reduced his ownership stake. In September 2021, the FBI raided Deripaska's properties in Washington, DC and New York. In 2022, he was indicted for sanctions evasion related to maintaining US properties and financial accounts. ## Significance Deripaska is the Russian oligarch most directly connected to the Trump campaign through the Manafort-Kilimnik channel. The fact that Trump's campaign chairman was sharing internal polling data that was intended to reach a sanctioned Putin-aligned oligarch — while simultaneously running the presidential campaign of a candidate who would control US sanctions policy — represents one of the most direct conflicts of interest in the [[Russia]] record.