The United States is continuing to deny a visa to RUSAL boss Oleg Deripaska despite repeated request by Russia for an explanation and the enlisting of a US firm to help with the application.
RUSAL has been running the Berbice bauxite administration and is embroiled in an almost year-old industrial dispute which the Guyana Government has been accused of turning a blind eye to.
Reuters today reported that Washington has given no explanation for denying an entry visa to Russia’s fifth richest man and aluminium tycoon despite repeatedly being pressed to do so.
Deripaska, 42, ranked fifth-richest Russian by Forbes magazine, with assets of US$10.7 billion, has strong Kremlin backing and is chief executive officer and biggest shareholder in the world’s top aluminium producer, RUSAL.
The U.S. State Department revoked Deripaska’s multiple-entry visa without explanation in 2006, when relations between Washington and Moscow were at a post-Cold War low.
In September, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appealed in an open letter to the U.S.-based law firm Endeavor Group, which has been trying to secure Deripaska a visa. The U.S. Justice Department has said Deripaska paid Endeavor over US$200,000 for consulting services.
The Wall Street Journal last year linked the visa denial to suspicions Deripaska could have ties to organised crime in Russia.
