MOSCOW, October 20. /TASS/. Businessman Oleg Deripaska on Wednesday called the situation with the searches in the homes of his relatives in the United States another attempt to push the "narrative about the allegedly huge role of Russians" in the 2016 presidential elections.
In his statement on the Telegram channel, the businessman didn’t shy away from using swear words.
"Watching everything that is going on in America, I never cease to be amazed at some fantastic stupidity of a part of the American establishment <...> that continues to persistently push this narrative about the allegedly colossal role of Russians in the US presidential elections in 2016," he wrote.
The businessman stressed that it is time to admit the obvious, namely that Trump's victory was helped by "dumb dummies from Washington" who bored their own voters so much that they were ready to vote "even for a theatrical character, but not for the representatives of the Clinton clan mired in bribes."
Deripaska noted that instead of solving internal problems, Washington is looking for an enemy again.
"For the sake of obscurantists from the American military-industrial complex and a couple of crazy analysts (who are to blame that the US debt has reached astronomical figures), the absurd show is on," he added.
The businessman also asked if the FBI agents managed to "refresh themselves with sour jam from the storerooms and a couple of bottles of vodka" they found in the abandoned houses of his relatives.
FBI searches in Deripaska’s houses
On Tuesday, Larisa Belyaeva, the official representative of the Russian businessman, told TASS that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was conducting searches in the homes of Oleg Deripaska's relatives in New York and Washington.
According to her, the searches are related to the sanctions imposed against the businessman.
On April 6, 2018, the United States imposed sanctions against Oleg Deripaska and the companies he controlled such as Rusal and the En+ Group, the Basic Element industrial group and the Russian Machines machine-building holding, B-Finance and Eurosibenergo and the GAZ Group.
Together with a number of other Russian businessmen who came under US sanctions, Deripaska was banned from entering the US. His assets in the US were frozen and American businessmen were banned from doing business with his companies.
On January 27, 2019, the US Treasury Department announced the lifting of sanctions imposed on Rusal, En+ and Eurosibenergo. However, this cost Deripaska his control over these companies. In particular, his share in the En+ holding decreased from 70% to 44.95%, in Rusal he still owns directly only 0.01% of shares, on which he had no right to receive dividends. The entrepreneur himself remained on the sanctions list.