- The three biggest names on the list of Russian nationals sanctioned by the US on Friday are Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg, and Alexander Torshin.
- Torshin and Deripaska are known to have been in indirect contact — through their associates — with members of Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
- Vekselberg, meanwhile, is one of six Russians aligned with Russian President Vladimir Putin who attended Trump's inaugural celebrations in January 2017.
- Two of Vekselberg's US associates donated a combined $1.25 million to Trump's inaugural committee.
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The 3 biggest names on the latest Russia sanctions list have all popped up in the investigation surrounding Trump
Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg, and Alexander Torshin were in indirect contact with or had associates who donated to pro-Trump interests.
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The laundry list of names included in the US's latest round of sanctions against Russia leaves no doubt that it's targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest associates as the Kremlin ramps up its aggression around the globe.
But three names stand out from the list: Oleg Deripaska, Viktor Vekselberg, and Alexander Torshin:
- Kirill Shamalov, Suleiman Kerimov, Andrei Skoch, Igor Rotenberg, and Vladimir Bogdanov.
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The Russian-Ukrainian billionaire and aluminum magnate is a longtime ally of the Kremlin. Manafort's relationship with Deripaska, meanwhile, stretches back years and relates to the two men's work pushing pro-Russia interests on the world stage.
Things haven't always been rosy between them. In legal complaints filed in the Cayman Islands in 2014, Deripaska's representatives said Manafort disappeared after Deripaska gave him and his longtime associate Rick Gates $19 million to invest in a Ukrainian TV venture in 2007 that ultimately failed.
Last year, The Washington Post reported on emails between Manafort and Konstantin Kilimnik, a former Russian intelligence officer, that raised questions about whether Manafort may have pushed a pro-Russia campaign platform to pay off his debt to Deripaska.
According to The Post, beginning in April 2016, Manafort offered to give Deripaska "private briefings" about the Trump campaign and asked Kilimnik how he could use his elevated role in the campaign to "get whole" with Deripaska.
At the end of July, Kilimnik
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The energy tycoon whose associates donated over $1 million to Trumps inauguration
Vekselberg, the Russian energy mogul who was among the seven oligarchs targeted in the latest sanctions, has not attracted the same level of media scrutiny as Deripaska, but he is no less influential.
Vekselberg is the founder of the Renova Group, a Russian conglomerate with a range of interests in Russia's energy sector. He frequently meets with Putin to discuss business.
Vekselberg was one of at least six Putin-allied Russians who attended Trump's inaugural celebrations in January 2017. Citing federal filings, The Post reported that two of Vekselberg's US associates donated a combined $1.25 million to Trump's inaugural committee.
Torshin, the Russian banker and politician who was one of the 17 senior Russian government officials hit with sanctions on Friday, is under investigation by the FBI, which is looking into whether he illegally funneled money into the National Rifle Association.
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The NRA said itspent a record $55 millionon the 2016 elections, most of which came from a sector of the organization that isn't required to disclose its donors. About $30 million of that was spent on backing Trump or opposing the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton.
The NRA has emphasized and news reports have confirmed that Torshin, not the organization, is under investigation by the FBI.
Torshin attended the NRA's convention every year from 2012 to 2016 — occasionally with Maria Butina, his longtime assistant and representative — and has met every NRA president since 2012,according to NPR.
Torshin's NRA credentials earned him a post as an election monitor in the November 2012 race between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney.
Butina, meanwhile, has been cultivating her own ties with American gun-rights advocates, like the Republican strategist Paul Erickson, with whom she has been acquainted since at least 2013.
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Erickson invited scrutiny last year whenreports emerged that he tried to arrange a back-door meetingbetween Trump and Putin, with Torshin acting as "President Putin's emissary on this front." Butina made a similar request to the Trump campaign through another right-wing advocate.
Neither Trump nor his campaign is known to have entertained the request. Torshin and Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, attended a separate NRA dinner the same night.
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