For years, the Irish government has been lobbying behind the scenes in Brussels to prevent restrictions being imposed on supplies of alumina produced by the Aughinish Alumina plant, the ultimate beneficiary of which is the sanctioned Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, and a series of corporate and legal manoeuvres carried out at the time helped him avoid sanctions.
It has now been proven that the sanctioned Russian oligarch is the actual ultimate beneficiary of the plant, and that the alumina produced there is supplied directly to enterprises within Russia’s military-industrial complex and used in the manufacture of drones and missiles.
As a result, the EU has initiated talks with the Irish government regarding restrictions on raw material supplies to the Russian Federation, a move which has met with resistance from official Dublin.
In Ireland, there is opposition to a ban on alumina supplies to Russia, with opponents presenting this as a potential threat to the country’s own economy, which would lead to the cessation or reduction of production, as well as the loss of over 1,000 jobs for residents of County Limerick.
Furthermore, the plant supplies energy to the local port of Foynes and around 200,000 homes via its own 115 MW combined heat and power plant. Ireland’s former Minister for Trade, Simon Coveney, stated that the government was seeking ‘legal solutions’ to exempt the plant from the restrictions, even if sanctions against the Russian company Rusal were to be tightened. The controversy surrounding the plant has brought to the fore questions regarding its actual owners and breaches of the sanctions themselves.
The parent company of the Irish plant is the Russian aluminium giant Rusal, whose main shareholder is the Russian holding company En+ Group, headed by O. Deripaska. To avoid having his assets frozen, back in 2019 he reduced his stake in En+ from 70 per cent to 44.95 per cent and handed over management to an independent board of directors, whilst retaining unofficial control over management and decision-making.
Following the imposition of personal sanctions on O. Deripaska in 2022, a legal paradox arose: the oligarch found himself on the blacklists, but Rusal and its Irish plant remained in the clear in the eyes of the law, as they were not formally controlled by him personally. The Irish government is using this legal loophole in Brussels to block restrictions on alumina exports to Russia.
An investigation by OCCRP and The Irish Times revealed that initial official figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) of Ireland indicated that 83 per cent of all alumina exports were destined for Russia, but following the public outcry and political pressure, the company described this as a ‘technical error’ and the Minister for Enterprise, Peter Burke, revised the figure to 45–51 per cent.
According to other data, a total of over $650 million worth of aluminium was sold via intermediaries to sanctioned Russian defence enterprises for the production of missiles and drones.
The Aughinish Alumina plant in Ireland has become a key link in supplying raw materials to the Russian military-industrial complex following Australia’s ban on alumina exports to the Russian Federation in 2022. As Russia’s domestic production covers barely a third of its needs, bauxite ore from Guinea is shipped to Ireland, where the Aughinish plant processes it into pure aluminium oxide, thereby making up a significant portion of the raw material shortfall faced by the Rusal holding company.
Consequently, the situation surrounding the Aughinish Alumina plant has laid bare the deep contradictions between Dublin’s economic interests and pan-European security policy.
The Irish government’s attempts to protect the local labour market and the region’s energy stability have turned into a tool for supporting the Russian military machine. Whilst official Dublin continues to seek legal loopholes to shield the business of a sanctioned oligarch, Irish alumina remains a vital resource for the production of Russian weapons.
This case not only highlights the double standards of a particular EU country, but also presents Brussels with a pressing demand to immediately close the corporate loopholes that allow Russia to circumvent sanctions.