London (CNN Business) Russian aluminum giant Rusal spent most of last year under US sanctions. Now it's pumping $200 million into a new project in Kentucky.
Rusal, the largest producer of aluminum outside China, will help fund and supply a low-carbon aluminum rolling mill under construction in the eastern part of the state, parent company En+ Group said Sunday.
The Russian company will take a 40% stake in the project, which is led by US startup Braidy Industries. The 2.5 million-square-foot plant in Kentucky will churn out metal for the auto and aerospace sectors.
Just for the record, according to Rachel Maddow, Access and Rusal have already could threaten to pull this project if the U.S. government ever dares to try an investigate or sanction Deripaska again.
Remind me of how this business has nothing to do with the man again, Steve?
McConnell has since proclaimed total “ignorance” that his vote to let the sanctions drop would result in a $Billion dollar project in his own home state — even though some of his own former staffers specifically lobbied Congress and the Treasury Dept for this plant — but then he hasn’t claimed he didn’t know about the $3.5 Million that Deripaska’s partner dropped into his SuperPac. I guess it was all just dumb luck, right?
So of course, that has nothing to do with McConnell also holding hostage two election protection measures already passed by the House meant to fend off more Russian election sabotage during the 2020 race?
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) blocked two election security measures on Thursday, arguing Democrats are trying to give themselves a "political benefit."
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Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) had tried to get consent Thursday to pass a House bill that requires the use of paper ballots and includes funding for the Election Assistance Commission. It passed the House 225-184 with one Republican voting for it.But McConnell objected, saying Schumer was trying to pass “partisan legislation.”
“Clearly this request is not a serious effort to make a law. Clearly something so partisan that it only received one single solitary Republican vote in the House is not going to travel through the Senate by unanimous consent,” McConnell said.
Using paper ballots gives a “partisan political benefit?” You mean actually counting the votes accurately and foiling Russian hackers benefit Democrats? I wonder why that would be? If McConnell has a better “non-partisan” way to protect our elections, put up a competing bill and hash it out in conference committee — but Nooo..
It's bad enough that even Nancy Pelosi is calling him “Moscow Mitch.”
During a speech at the Illinois Democrat County Chairs' Association brunch, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as "Moscow Mitch," drawing on a nickname that has been floating around for a few weeks attempting to tie McConnell to Russia. She says McConnell is the self-described "grim reaper" of progressive legislation, including that which addresses election security.
"We all want to invest in building our democracy and saving it from any enemies, foreign and domestic," Pelosi said. "We’ve sent our legislation to the Senate. Moscow Mitch says that he is the Grim Reaper. Imagine describing yourself as the Grim Reaper, that he’s going to bury all this legislation? Well, we have news for him. All this legislation is alive and well in the general public."
And apparently, this has Bitchy Mitch hopping mad like a live hen on an open grill.
New pressure on the top Republican in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, who blocked a series of elections security bills despite warnings from Bob Mueller and American intelligence that Russia is still at it. McConnell is furious with his new ‘Moscow Mitch’ nickname as progressive groups put up billboards in McConnell's home state of Kentucky showing McConnell in a Russian military uniform. Senator Richard Blumenthal and Malcom Nance, a former counter-intelligence operative in the U-S military join The Beat.
Too damn bad, Mitch. You don’t want people to call you that name? Pass some fucking election security bills.
Congressional Democrats have called for an investigation — yeah, I know, another investigation — and for some reason, their expecting that the Trump administration, who dropped the sanctions in the first place, are actually going to do that investigation. Yeah, like, for sure.
A group of Congressional leaders asked the Trump administration to review a Russian company’s investment in a new Kentucky aluminum mill.
The request comes from eight prominent Democratic lawmakers with leadership roles in committees with oversight, banking and national security responsibilities, including Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Adam Schiff.
Maybe you should just ask Mitch, his ex-chief of staff and his various other ex-staffers who basically set this entire thing up?
Rachel Maddow has been all over this and also pointed out the using business deals to gain political leverage is a tactic that the Pentagon says that Russia has been exploiting all over Europe for years.
Mayhaps that’s why they were so eager to set up a Trump Tower Moscow deal during the election which GOPers say “didn’t mean anything’ and has had “no influence what so ever” on Trump.
Yeah, um, so why’d he drop the Sanctions again?