“How a McConnell-backed effort to lift Russian sanctions boosted a Kentucky project“
From the Time version of the story:
“Ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, one of Rusal’s longtime major shareholders, Len Blavatnik, contributed more than $1 million through his companies to a GOP campaign fund tied to McConnell.”
The story here is still that a US Senator – the Majority Leader, no less – is taking a million dollar Russian contribution, and then doing nice things for Russia. There are no extenuating circumstances. It’s pretty simple when you don’t bury it with blather.
Hard to see the cause-and-effect connection here. There are a million good reasons why Blavatnik would be contributing to a fund supportive of the Senate Majority Leader. Yes, he may once have been Russian, but he’s also American, and also British. And owns Warner Music, a share of Beats, and many other entertainment assets. He may just be happy with McConnell’s support for strong copyright law protection. Or with loosening financial transaction restrictions in ways that may favor his other business interests.
The only surprising thing is that Blavatnik, 50th richest man in the world and richest in the UK, is said to only have ponied up for a million. That’s a rounding error in his world. To me this would be the surprising news headline: “Richest man in the music business fails to contribute to fund supporting Senate Majority Leader”