Russian investor in Kentucky mill is “deputy for the Kremlin”: report of the Senate Intelligence Committee

Rusal, a Russian aluminum company, has invested heavily in a mill that North American company Braidy Industries has planned for eastern Kentucky – and according to a Senate intelligence report on Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election, Rusal is a “proxy for the Kremlin “. “

In 2019, journalist Morgan Watkins reported in the Louisville Courier Journal, Rusal agreed to invest $ 200 million in Braidy’s mill. The Senate’s bipartisan intelligence report, published on August 18, describes the connections of Russian oligarch and Rusal co-owner Oleg Deripaska to the Kremlin.

According to the report, “Deripaska’s companies, including Rusal, are representatives of the Kremlin, including the Russian government’s lobbying efforts, economic measures and diplomatic relations.”

Watkins notes that Rusal had allocated $ 75 million to the mill as of December 31, 2019, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission report filed by Braidy in June, but stopped making contributions until Braidy received an additional US $ 300 million -Dollars in funding.

The US government has imposed sanctions on Rusal, but Kentucky Republican Senators Sen. Rand Paul and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have voted against maintaining the sanctions. Watkins notes that on Aug. 19, the Kentucky Democratic Party “questioned McConnell’s decision to endorse the lifting of sanctions against Rusal in light of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s report that identified Rusal as a proxy for the Kremlin.”