WASHINGTON – In January, as the Senate debated whether to permit the Trump administration to lift sanctions on Russia's largest aluminum producer, two men with millions of dollars riding on the outcome met for dinner at a restaurant in Zurich.

On one side of the table sat the head of sales for Rusal, the Russian aluminum producer that would benefit most immediately from a favorable Senate vote. The U.S. government had sanctioned Rusal as part of a campaign to punish Russia for “malign activity around the globe,” including attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election.

On the other side sat Craig Bouchard, an American entrepreneur who was trying to build the nation's first new aluminum-rolling mill in nearly four decades, in a corner of Kentucky ravaged by job losses and the opioid epidemic – a project that stood to benefit enormously if Rusal were able to get involved.

The men did not discuss the Senate debate that night at dinner, Bouchard said in an interview. But the timing of their meeting shows how much a major venture in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's home state had riding on the Democratic-backed effort in January to keep sanctions.

By the next day, McConnell had blocked the bill. And three months later, Rusal announced a partnership with Bouchard's company, providing $200 million to buy a 40% stake in the new aluminum plant in Ashland, Kentucky.

A spokesman for McConnell said the majority leader did not know Bouchard had hopes of a deal with Rusal at the time he led the effort to end the sanctions, citing the advice of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

Bouchard said no one from his company, Braidy Industries, told anyone in the U.S. government that lifting sanctions could help the project. Rusal's parent company, EN+, said the Kentucky project played no role in its lobbying campaign to persuade U.S. officials to do away with sanctions.

But Democratic senators have called for a government review of the deal, which is one of several issues fueling broader scrutiny of McConnell's posture toward Russia and its efforts to manipulate American voters.

Last month, he blocked consideration of election security bills with bipartisan support, despite warnings from the FBI and the intelligence community about the risks of foreign interference in the 2020 election.

Democrats have taunted McConnell with the moniker “Moscow Mitch,” drawing an angry response from the usually understated majority leader.