A firm with ties to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will be working with Braidy Industries to promote the construction of a Kentucky aluminum mill. | Win McNamee/Getty Images congress Russian-backed Kentucky mill makes PR push amid Democratic concerns Democrats want the Trump administration to review a Russian aluminum company's $200 million investment in the aluminum mill project.

Braidy Industries, which is developing a new Kentucky aluminum mill partially backed by the Russian aluminum giant Rusal, has hired a firm with ties to Sen. Mitch McConnell (r-Ky.) to give the project a public relations boost as Democrats raise concerns about the initiative.

The firm, RunSwitch PR, was co-founded in 2012 by Scott Jennings — a former McConnell aide and CNN political commentator who ran a super PAC in support of the Senate Majority Leader called Kentuckians for Strong Leadership. Braidy hired RunSwitch in July “following recommendations from fellow business leaders naming them the best statewide media relations agency,” a Braidy spokesman said.


The public relations push comes amid Democratic calls for the Trump administration to review Rusal’s $200 million investment in the aluminum mill project, which was made possible by the Treasury Department’s decision in January to lift sanctions on Rusal and other companies owned by Oleg Deripaska — a Russian oligarch and Kremlin ally accused of facilitating Moscow’s nefarious activities.

“As a rapidly growing business headquartered in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, we engage a number of top-notch advisers and counselors without regard for their political affiliation,” the Braidy spokesman said.

A spokesperson for RunSwitch, where Jennings is a partner, said the firm is “frequently hired by companies with Kentucky projects and interests.”

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“We are proud to work with Braidy Industries, a project with widespread bipartisan support that offers economic hope to a region that has taken a number of hits over the last several years,” the spokesperson added. “We believe the scurrilous attacks on Braidy are inaccurate and generated by people who want to see Eastern Kentucky fail if it means scoring political points, which is pretty pathetic.”

Jennings will not be working on the project himself.

The Braidy mill is projected to cost $1.7 billion. According to the company, it will produce aluminum for the food and auto industries and not for the Defense Department, a concern Democrats have raised in their push for a review of the Rusal investment for possible national security implications.

Two former top staffers to McConnell, now working for the firm Akin Gump, have also lobbied Congress and the Treasury Department on the development of the aluminum mill, as POLITICO first reported on Wednesday. Akin Gump was hired by Braidy in May to help with the billion-dollar project, several months after the decision was made to lift the Rusal sanctions. A Braidy spokesperson emphasized that the Akin Gump lobbying efforts were unrelated to the sanctions decision.

Deripaska himself is still under U.S. sanctions.

McConnell has weathered criticism for helping block a bipartisan congressional effort that would have stopped the lifting of sanctions on the Russian companies. McConnell told reporters in May that his support for rolling back the penalties was “completely unrelated to anything that might happen in my home state.”

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