The Ministry of Finance lifts sanctions from three companies of the Russian billionaire: how it happened - ForumDaily
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The Ministry of Finance lifts sanctions from three companies of the Russian billionaire: how it happened

The US Treasury Department has lifted sanctions against Russian companies Rusal, En+ and Eurosibenergo, associated with billionaire Oleg Deripaska. At the same time, restrictive measures against Deripaska himself remain in force, writes Air force.

In a statement, the US Treasury Department said that, in accordance with the terms of the lifting of sanctions, these companies reduced Deripaska’s direct and indirect shares and were out of his control.

The companies also agreed to an audit, which will guarantee the fulfillment of the conditions presented to them.

The US Treasury may return to the sanctions lists associated with the Deripaska company if they violate the conditions on which they agreed to withdraw from the sanctions.

Many politicians in the American Congress considered it inappropriate to ease sanctions against companies in one way or another associated with Deripaska while the “Russian trace” in the Trump election campaign was being investigated.

However, according to Kim Gittleson, a business correspondent for the Air Force, various business groups put pressure on the Donald Trump administration, seeking to lift the sanctions from these three companies.

The reason is that Rusal is one of the world's largest suppliers of aluminum, and immediately after the introduction of sanctions, world prices for aluminum jumped for some time.

The En+ group announced an almost complete renewal of the board of directors. Of the old members of the council, only its chairman, Lord Gregory Baker, remained on the board, the author of the plan to remove En+ and its Rusal and Eurosibenergo from sanctions.

The new candidates were approved by the US Treasury Department. These are Christopher Bancroft Burnham, Carl Hughes, Joan McNaughton, Nicholas Jordan, Igor Lozhevsky, Alexander Chmel and Andrei Sharonov, Vedomosti writes.

How to remove the sanctions

Deripaska and eight of his assets, including Rusal, were added to the US Treasury sanctions list on April 6, 2018.

The decision to exclude the companies connected with Deripaska from the sanctions list, the US Treasury Department took 19 last December, after the shares owned by the businessman were reduced.

The Department of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reported on its readiness to lift sanctions within 30 days, but in early January, Democratic senators intervened.

This required that En+ form a new board of directors, and Deripaska reduce his stake in the company from 70% to 44,95%, transfer part of the shares to a charitable foundation and abandon the shares pledged to VTB. The Russian businessman accepted these conditions.

VTB has increased its stake in En+, a bank representative confirmed to RBC. Previously, VTB owned 9,62% in the capital of En+. How much the bank's share has increased is still unknown.

Democrats were against

Democrats did not like the fact that Deripaska still had a reduced, but still significant stake in En+, and also that the deal mentioned VTB Bank, which itself is under sanctions. They appealed to the US Treasury with a request to postpone the lifting of sanctions, and the Democratic leader in the Senate, Charles Schumer, introduced a resolution against their lifting.

US Secretary of the Treasury Stephen Mnuchin at a meeting with members of Congress said that the lifting of sanctions against Deripaska’s companies indicates the success of the American sanctions policy, and did not agree that this could help the Russian authorities.

As Mnuchin explained, the lifting of sanctions is related to the role that these companies play in the global aluminum market. In addition, En+, Rusal and Eurosibenergo may again fall under sanctions if they do not comply with the conditions of the US Treasury, the minister assured.

January 16 Republicans, who constitute a majority in the Senate, blocked the adoption of the resolution calling for the retention of sanctions against Deripaska companies.

After that, the House of Representatives, where the Democrats are the majority, responded with a resolution calling for the annulment of the decision to lift the restrictions. However, this document was symbolic, since the initiative should have been supported by both houses of Congress.

Deripaska and the USA

In 2017, Deripaska was repeatedly mentioned in the American press in connection with the case of Russia's alleged interference in the US presidential election. He himself denied the accusations made against him by the Americans.

In April Deripaska's 2018 came under sanctions. As Mnuchin said at the time, "Russia's oligarchs and elites who benefit from a corrupt system will no longer be treated separately from the consequences of their government's destabilizing activities."

At the same time, the US Treasury announced that sanctions could be lifted from Rusal if Deripaska, against whom personal sanctions were imposed, renounces control over the company. The American government does not want to harm the people working for the company, Mnuchin said.

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