In 2019, sanctioned Russian oligarch and Putin bestie Oleg Deripaska mysteriously announced that his firm, Rusal, would build a new aluminum plant in the United States, in Mitch McConnell’s home oblast of Kentuckistan.1 It struck one columnist and some Senate Democrats as a remarkable coincidence that McConnell blocked bipartisan efforts to stymie Russian election interference in the 2020 election shortly thereafter.2
