Deripaska’s addition to Australian sanction list signifies more hardship for Rusal

The government of Australia has sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska with business interests in Australia, following initially getting them off of Australia's official sanctions list.

Oleg Deripaska was the President and controlling shareholder of En+ Group and the Russian aluminium giant Rusal, which holds a 20% stake in the Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) refinery in Gladstone, one of the largest alumina refineries in the world by production capacity.

The Russian billionaire and industrialist, Oleg Deripaska and Viktor Vekselberg, a Ukrainian born, Russian oligarch and billionaire businessman’s name have been added to Australia's official sanctions list along with 20 Russian businesses, as part of the federal government's counter-response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

However, both the oligarchs had already been sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom.

Marise Payne, the Foreign Minister of Australia declined the allegations on the government action was laggard to target the two Russian businessmen.

The Minister confirmed, "There is no delay. One of the individuals sanctioned by the international community on the 15th of March, I have sanctioned on the 17th of March.”

"I think Australians would expect that their government would want the due diligence done on sanctions processes, no matter where they apply to make sure that we are addressing all those issues."

Previously this week, Karen Andrews, the Home Affairs Minister labelled the possibility of sanctions while being cautious of the economic impact.

Andrews said, "Queensland alumina is very important to the Gladstone economy, it's a very large employer in that town. We will be mindful of that but there is the bigger picture that we need to be mindful of as well.”

"If we need to continue to put those in place and more individuals are needed to have sanctions against them, then we will take action against them."