Rusal Shares Soar, Aluminum Price Falls as U.S. Lifts Sanctions

A worker controls forming of aluminum ingots on a conveyor belt at the foundry shop of the Rusal Krasnoyarsk aluminium smelter in Krasnoyarsk, Russia on Oct. 3, 2018. Ilya Naymushin/Reuters

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW—U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration lifted sanctions on Jan. 27 on the core empire of Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska, including aluminum giant Rusal and its parent En+, despite a Democrat-led push to maintain them.

The move, which sent the Russian stock index to an all-time high, has watered down the toughest penalties imposed since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, following a lobbying campaign in the United States that lasted almost 10 months.