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You are here: Home / Politics / An Unexamined Scandal / Oleg Deripaska Comes To Kentucky

Oleg Deripaska Comes To Kentucky

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Do you remember Oleg Deripaska, Paul Manafort’s business partner to whom he owed $17 million? The Russian aluminum oligarch?

Well, he’s building an aluminum plant in, of all places, Kentucky, the home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Sanctions have been lifted, of course.

Here’s the announcement from Deripaska’s company, RUSAL.

Just a matter of a canny businessman seeing an opportunity, I’m sure.

 

Reader Interactions

75Comments

  1. 1.

    SFAW

    Nothing to see here, move it along.

    Out of curiosity, how does one say “Traitor Turtle” по-русски

    ETA: Teh Google tells me it’s ” изменник черепаха,” but I don’t know.

  3. 3.

    Currants

    We really are a client state now, aren’t we. Might be time to look seriously into emigration.

  4. 4.

    Currants

    @Currants: (My first hopeful instinct–the Dems will get rid of that in 2021. Then my brain kicks in: nope, not with the Fed courts corrupted as they have been in this admin.)

  6. 6.

    trollhattan

    How much fucking excess electricity does Kentucky have? Aluminum smelting is phenomenally power-intensive and one reason why so much of it is along the Columbia River.

    Oh, “clean coal.” I totally forgot about that.

  9. 9.

    kindness

    @Cheryl Rofer: Smelting is possible but the mineral in the ground is bauxite. There isn’t any bauxite mining anywhere near Kentucky when I googled it. I would think transportation costs would outweigh having the mined product smelted so far from where it was mined. Unless electricity is phenomenally cheap in Kentucky. Oh. Yea. So we are subsidizing Russian industry now I guess.

  11. 11.

    trollhattan

    @kindness:
    I suppose a smelter could operate on scrap and recycled aluminum. I had a steel mill job in Seattle where they used scrap and various alloy ores, no iron ore whatsoever. Electric furnaces–two of them.

  12. 12.

    waspuppet

    Today on “This Would Be All Anyone Talked About for Three Months If These Were Democrats …”

  14. 14.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Couple of useful bits:

    This thing has been in the works for a couple of years. Braidy had no apparent ability to do anything close to what this plant was supposed to be doing, and got midwifed into being by the GOP Governor with a $15M subsidy and a $15M tax credit. When the howling started, it was immediate, and the Bevin administration refused to release info about partners and backers. It was pretty odd, and I’m assuming that the backstory is that it involved Deripaska all along, and was being midwifed via McConnell, Paul, Bevin and Thomas Massie/NRA.

  15. 15.

    Gin & Tonic

    Not just home of Mitch McConnell, but also of Rand Paul, one of only two Senators to vote against the last Russian sanctions bill (dad Ron has been in the Russians’ pocket since like forever.)

    Anyway, a free cookie to anyone who guesses the name of the other one of the two Senators. And a big thanks to Cheryl – I was hoping somebody would front-page this.

  16. 16.

    laura

    Shorter McConnell – we who smelt it dealt it.
    But seriously, this improves the lives of Kentuckians how?

  18. 18.

    Gin & Tonic

    Oh, and from what I’ve read, it’s not smelting, it’s for rolling sheet, using already-smelted aluminum. Big demand for aluminum sheet in car manufacturing.

  19. 19.

    Brachiator

    Do you remember Oleg Deripaska, Paul Manafort’s business partner to whom he owed $17 million? The Russian aluminum oligarch?

    Well, he’s building an aluminum plant in, of all places, Kentucky, the home of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

    These are some brazen motherfuckers. And the GOP leadership is all in on the grift.

    To echo Yakov Smirnoff, “what a country!”

  20. 20.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Other useful pieces:

    – Trump apparently was talking up Braidy several months ago, prior to lifting RUSAL sanctions;

    – The plant’s total build is $1.7B. This includes the initial KY subsidy (without which, Braidy doesn’t exist) and an $800M loan from US DOE. RUSAL supplies $200M, and the rest of I’ll be raised by IPO. RUSAL picks up 40% ownership for a smallish investment.

  23. 23.

    zhena gogolia

    @SFAW:

    Haha, I like something like “Cherepakha-izmennik.” It sounds like a 19th-century adventure novel. (I can’t do Cyrillic on this blog or my comments disappear.) But betraying one’s country would probably be “predatel’.” “Cherepakha-predatel’.”

  24. 24.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    @laura:

    In order to satisfy the whims of a slew of racist, pig-ignorant hilljacks too stupid to abandon a set of chemically toxic hills in the festering cesspool of an economically depressed area, the taxpayers of the United States (along with even more subsidy from the taxpayers of LOUISVILLE and LEXINGTON via their KY taxes) are going to grant RUSAL about a 4:1 initial return on investment. Further, the metal to be rolled is coming from Siberian smelters, not American.

  28. 28.

    gene108

    @waspuppet:

    Today on “This Would Be All Anyone Talked About for Three Months If These Were Democrats …”

    Won’t ever change, because no liberal billionaire wants to go all in and open a pro-Democrats media outlet of any kind.

    So Republicans have a very one-sided advantage in deciding what the most important stories the media must report on are.

  30. 30.

    smintheus

    @kindness: The announced plan is import the aluminum from a Siberian plant. More money going into Putin coffers thanks to Mitch.

  32. 32.

    SFAW

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Yeah, I’m wondering how come he can do Cyrillic but you and I can’t.

    Because I’m a Real ‘Murican, unlike you two Commies.

    Well, that, plus apparently if I copy it from the right Google-spot, it works (although it did put me in moderation for a bit).

  33. 33.

    SFAW

    @zhena gogolia:

    Haha, I like something like “Cherepakha-izmennik.”

    And if I were Glenn Beck, I’d note that “Cherepakha” and “Deripaska” seem suspiciously close, phonetically — yet another link between McConnell and the Russkies!!!!

  34. 34.

    SenyorDave

    @rikyrah: I’ve become convinced that the Dems should have non-stop investigations into Trump. People don’t give a shit about policy. At this point might as well just keep investigating and hope they find the smoking gun. If it exists I think its the Russian connection, be it Trump, the NRA, the entire GOP. The other thing is go after Trump’s own words. When he went after Omar’s 9/11 comments (I have no problem with the gist of what she said, and I know what she meant, but if she had just said some people did a terrible thing there would be no issue that shitgibbon could have brought up), the Democrats should have brought up his asinine comment about having the tallest building after 9/11.

  36. 36.

    Patricia Kayden

    @Mike in NC: It seems as if the entire GOP Congress is on the Russian payroll. Plus the entire lot in the White House. Putin was smart to target Trump for the presidency. It has all worked out so well for Russia.

  38. 38.

    Patricia Kayden

    @rikyrah: I love that Democrats are investigating Trump’s regime but hope that they land some hard punches as they uncover its dirty tricks. Somehow it feels as if Republicans are on the offense instead of being forced to defend Trump’s inane and sleazy policies. We need to go on the attack.

  39. 39.

    Patricia Kayden

    @SenyorDave:

    At this point might as well just keep investigating and hope they find the smoking gun.

    Yep. Finding a smoking gun or several smoking guns is a good way for House Democrats to spend their time. There is zero benefit from trying to work with Trump to get anything sensible passed. I assume once the Mueller (redacted) report is released on Thursday, Trump will go into attack mode and that will be the end of legislation between now and next November.

  40. 40.

    Mary G

    I remember a younger, innocent me when I thought that Robert Mueller’s people would grab Deripaska off the plane and lead him away in handcuffs.

  42. 42.

    germy

    Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Hasson, accused of compiling a hit list of Democrat politicians and journalists, won't be hit with terrorism charges, his attorney wrote in a court filing. https://t.co/ctYC3LskUs— Stars and Stripes (@starsandstripes) April 16, 2019

    “The defendant is a domestic terrorist bent on committing acts dangerous to human life.”- @TheJusticeDept in February ⬇️ https://t.co/XkNDMtjTYO— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) April 16, 2019

  43. 43.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Patricia Kayden:

    It has all worked out so well for Russia.

    We’ll see about that after Putin leaves this mortal coil. The power struggles should be entertaining

  45. 45.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @germy:
    The Russians are the good guys now, haven’t you heard? Defenders of white civilization and Christianity. Putin sure knows how to handle protesters.

    I feel dirty for typing the above out, but that probably goes through the minds of the American far-right. They admired Putin for his “masculinity” and thought Obama was a weakling in comparison, probably in addition to being “racially inferior” as well

  46. 46.

    rikyrah

    @Patricia Kayden:

    @Mike in NC: It seems as if the entire GOP Congress is on the Russian payroll. Plus the entire lot in the White House. Putin was smart to target Trump for the presidency. It has all worked out so well for Russia.

    Uh huh
    Uh huh

  51. 51.

    zhena gogolia

    @SFAW:

    I was curious enough to try to find out what kind of name Deripaska is. My 30 seconds of google searching were inconclusive, but it seems it derives from a Cossack nickname meaning “pugnacious fellow.” At any rate, it has no connection to cherepakha, which derives from the word for “skull.”

  53. 53.

    ??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??

    @Gin & Tonic:
    Perhaps it was, but I meant it in a “that’s going to fun” sort of sardonic way. I don’t think it’s particularly funny. I apologize again.

  55. 55.

    gene108

    @Patricia Kayden:

    Somehow it feels as if Republicans are on the offense instead of being forced to defend Trump’s inane and sleazy policies.

    I have the same feeling, but I think a lot of Republicans aggressiveness in defending Trump is because his support among Republican voters seems to be unflappable.

    We already knew, even before he got elected, that he cheated on two of his spouses, went into bankruptcy six times, has stiffed thousands of contractors, settled a lawsuit with former students of Trump University, because it was a scam, and hired illegal Polish immigrants in the construction of Trump Tower, who sued him and won because Trump didn’t pay them.

    Since then, we’ve come to learn he cheated on Melanie with porn stars, his personal lawyer (2016 vice finance chair of the RNC) has gone to jail for paying them off to keep silent about it, in violation of campaign finance laws, his first NSA head has gone to jail and worked illegally for the Turkish government among other charges, his campaign manager has gone to jail, and a few other people, who worked with his campaign have all gone to jail.

    His initial picks to head the EPA, HHS, and Department of the Interior all stepped down to avoid further investigations into their corrupt as hell abuses of their departments.

    That’s just scratching the surface of stuff that might turn off a party’s voters from supporting a President in their party and it hasn’t made a dent in Trump’s approval ratings with Republicans.

    I think Republican voters, (i.e. conservative white people), think they are in some existential battle for their survival against the forces they were arrayed against in the Culture Wars of the 1980’s and 1990’s and are realizing they are losing or lost most of those battles, despite some early wins. I think they look at this like a fight to the death, so getting someone, who will break all the rules to make sure they can win is not only acceptable, but encouraged.

  57. 57.

    gene108

    @rikyrah:

    He can’t really say “Trump voters are racist”, now can he?

    Not sure how a Democratic candidate will thread the needle to attract the fabled Obama-Trump voter and address concerns of minority communities, but it seems that is what is being asked of them.

  58. 58.

    rikyrah

    @gene108:

    none of that mattered because he was right on White Supremacy. That’s all that matters to the base. They don’t give a shyt about anything else. The elites only wanted their tax cuts. And the phony azz Christians only wanted judges.

    All that you wrote about…none of that mattered to them. Their continued support of a traitor shows them for who they have always been.

  59. 59.

    rikyrah

    @gene108:

    Not sure how a Democratic candidate will thread the needle to attract the fabled Obama-Trump voter and address concerns of minority communities, but it seems that is what is being asked of them.

    We didn’t go after the Trump Voter in 2018. We went after our NON-Voters in 2018. And, we need to go after our NON-Voters in 2020. And make sure that our REGULAR voters are not denied the franchise.

    Wasting time on Dolt45 voters isn’t remotely what a Democrat needs to be doing in 2020.

  60. 60.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Patricia Kayden:
    The Soviets should have used their belief that capitalists only understand money and found some US politicians and backed their campaigns to the hilt. They wouldn’t have needed an army–just buy US politicians.

    Although I don’t think the rot had completely set in to the property moguls and the GOP leadership.

    I can’t imagine Ike, Taft, Goldwater, et al being so corruptable.

  62. 62.

    SFAW

    @zhena gogolia:

    At any rate, it has no connection to cherepakha, which derives from the word for “skull.”

    Understood. I was just going for a Beckian “connect the dots!!! It’s all right there, if you know where to look!!!!!!!” insanity vibe.

  63. 63.

    James E Powell

    @gene108:

    Republicans on the attack, Democrats on the defensive has been the paradigm for decades. It’s embedded software in the press/media. Not enough Democrats are interested in changing that. Their reluctance to do so is infuriating at times.

    I think Republican voters, (i.e. conservative white people), think they are in some existential battle for their survival

    This is readily apparent if you listen to them. Especially if you are – like me – an older white male from the suburbs. They will, as the saying goes, speak freely in your presence in a way they would not do in mixed company.

  64. 64.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @gene108: The televangelists like JimBakker and the preachers like Robert Jeffress (minister at 1st SBC Church Dallas) and Franklin Graham preach daily that Trump is the only force that can protect good Bible-believing Evangelicals from the Satanic Democrats who are tearing the US away from God through pushing abortion and homosexuality. If anyone other than Trump wins ministers and church members will be immediately arrested and disappeared into jails or re-education camps.

    I don’t think these people can be talked to. Their bubble has been 40+ years in the making.

  65. 65.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Gin & Tonic: Fair point. Really easy for us to engage in clever snark on the internet, but real people will suffer. Cute sarcasm wears thin.

  67. 67.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @rikyrah: ??
    Just shoot me. Enough already.

    He’s trying so hard to avoid saying “I may be the geh but I’m white so I won’t be scary to old white people,” which is what all this bullshit really means.

    JUST SAY IT.

  69. 69.

    zhena gogolia

    I thought that saying that the problem was bigger than just Trump was the accepted Democratic line. But because Buttigieg said it, somehow it’s a racist statement. I give up.

  70. 70.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @zhena gogolia: I wasn’t clear, then.

    I believe he’s announcing that he’s not scary to folks who felt so upset by the disruption in society. Which annoys me. I think people need to adjust to current US demographics, rather than be soothed. YMMV.

    But I did NOT say that because he said it, it’s racist. I regret that I did not make that clear.

  71. 71.

    zhena gogolia

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho:

    He’s a politician, so he says a lot of things that I wouldn’t say. But for some reason when he says them, people get outraged. I don’t really get the hostility towards him. He is not my top candidate, but I think he’s been saying lots and lots of excellent things — those things don’t seem to attract the tweeters.

  72. 72.

    schrodingers_cat

    They first came as traders, then stayed on till the bled the country dry. Took almost everything of value and killed millions in the process. Russians are just following in the footsteps of the “saviors” of the West.

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