US firm tried to enlist ambassadors to help Russian company

A US lobbying firm sought to recruit the ambassadors of France, Germany and several other countries to demonstrate international support for severing Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska's control of Rusal, the aluminum manufacturing giant sanctioned by Washington.

Documents made public by the Justice Department show that Mercury LLC drafted messages for at least six envoys to send to senior US government officials that expressed support for a plan to eliminate Deripaska's majority stake in the EN+ Group, the holding company that owns nearly 50 per cent of Rusal.

The records are the latest installment in a drama full of international intrigue.

Deripaska's close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin are under a microscope while unintended targets of the US penalties struggle with the punishment's impact.

Leading the way, in an odd twist, is a conservative member of Britain's House of Lords, Gregory Barker, who hired Mercury to salvage Rusal and EN+ by casting Deripaska as the heavy.

It's unclear how many of the ambassadors sent the messages. But Jamaica's envoy did, underscoring concerns about the future of a Rusal-owned factory on the Caribbean island.

When the Treasury imposed sanctions on Deripaska a few months ago, EN+ and Rusal were blacklisted too because of the cascading nature of the penalties.

It fell to Barker, who was installed less than a year ago as chairman of EN+'s board, to persuade the Trump administration to lift the sanctions against both companies. To do that, he will have to assure the US that Deripaska is no longer calling the shots at EN+ or Rusal.

Barker, a former British energy minister, signed a contract with Mercury in early May a month after the Treasury Department announced the sanctions.

Mercury is to earn USD 108,500 every four weeks, according to the contract, to support Barker's efforts to negotiate Deripaska's exit from the EN+ board and "the reduction of his ownership interest in the company."