, Columnist
Why the U.S. Targeted This Russian Oligarch
The billionaire Oleg Deripaska is no Putin crony, but he helps flood the U.S. with imported aluminum.
It's about the aluminum.
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What's happening to Rusal, the world's second-biggest aluminum producer, and other assets partly owned or controlled by Oleg Deripaska, marks an important change in the U.S. sanctions regime for Russia: For the first time, the sanctions actually bite. An example is being made of a billionaire who isn't part of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle, but whose business is unpopular with the administration of President Donald Trump.
Previous U.S. sanctions have concerned Russian companies and individuals with little or no business in the U.S. That's not the case with Deripaska. His holding company, En+, owns 48 percent of Rusal, and in 2017, 14.4 percent of that company's revenue — $1.4 billion — came from the U.S.