House votes to keep sanctions on Russian firms

WASHINGTON — The House voted overwhelmingly Thursday to maintain sanctions on three companies connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, protesting the Treasury Department’s decision to lift the financial penalties.

The 362-53 vote was symbolic, as the Senate already had defeated a resolution to overrule the Treasury Department and keep the sanctions in place. Democratic senators on Wednesday failed to get the 60 votes needed to move forward despite 11 Republicans voting with them.

In the House, 136 Republicans voted with Democrats, sending a bipartisan message of disapproval to President Donald Trump’s administration on Russia.

At issue is a December announcement from the Treasury Department that the U.S. would lift sanctions on the companies linked to Deripaska — Russian aluminum manufacturing giant Rusal, EN+ Group and the Russian power company JSC EuroSibEnergo. EN+ Group is a holding company that owns nearly 50 percent of Rusal.

Congress had until Friday to vote to block the sanctions relief. The Treasury Department says the Russian firms have committed to separating from Deripaska, who will remain blacklisted as part of an array of measures announced in April that targeted tycoons close to the Kremlin.

Treasury said it was prepared to lift the company sanctions because Deripaska agreed to reduce his ownership of the companies below 50 percent. His reduced stake would protect the companies “from the controlling influence of a Kremlin insider,” Treasury said.

Treasury has warned that keeping the sanctions in place could upset global aluminum markets or even prompt Russia to nationalize the company.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin briefed House members on the decision last week and Senate Republicans on Tuesday, all behind closed doors. Speaking after the Senate meeting, he said the sanctions “shouldn’t be a political issue.” Meanwhile, a Belarusian model who claimed last year that she had recordings of Deripaska discussing Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election was arrested upon her arrival in Moscow on Thursday following deportation from Thailand. She never released the recordings.

Moscow police said Anastasia Vashukevich was detained on charges of inducement to prostitution along with three people deported alongside her. Vashukevich, who has been in a Thai prison since February 2018, was given a suspended sentence Tuesday and ordered deported after she pleaded guilty to soliciting and conspiracy along with several co-defendants in a case related to holding a sex-training seminar in Thailand.