Senate Majority Leader Suspected of Helping Deripaska
February 15, Washington. A screenshot shared on Twitter accuses Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of receiving donations from the closest associate of Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, the de facto owner of one of the largest aluminum producers in the world, Rusal. Recently, the GOP-controlled Congress lifted its sanctions.
Len Blavatnik, a US citizen with dual citizenship, has donated millions to McConnell's election campaign and the Senate Leadership Fund through Access Holdings in recent years, according to the report. The report also said that in January McConnell encouraged Republicans to vote against a resolution to maintain sanctions on Deripaska's companies.
The information on Twitter appeared virtually simultaneously with McConnell's statement that the President of the United States intends to declare a state of emergency in the country in order to overcome the Senate ban on the allocation of funds for the construction of a steel barrier on the southern border of the United States.
This idea was key during the election campaign of Donald Trump. It sparked a scandal with the suspension of the US government.
The head of state claims that the wall will help protect Americans from the influx of drugs and illegal immigrants from Mexico. Democrats see this as just a pretext and do not want to allocate money to the president's whim.
It is quite possible that this is another attack on the senator using fake-news in order to influence the majority in Congress before an important decision is made.