The Australian government has sanctioned the Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska, who is the founder of aluminium company EN+ Group and its subsidiary Rusal.

Rusal has a 20% share in the Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) refinery in Gladstone.

Deripaska was initially left off Australia’s official sanctions list, but the oligarch, along with Viktor Vekselberg, was added to the list following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The pair had already been sanctioned by the governments in the UK and US.

Deripaska made his billions in the lucrative aluminium industry in the 1990s and the accusations against him range from allegedly organising the murder of a rival, bribing an official and having Russian mafia links, with US Treasury accusing him of laundering money and holding assets for Vladimir Putin.

Foreign Minister Marise Payne rejected allegations the government was too slow to target the two Russian businessmen. 

“There is no delay,” Senator Payne said.

“One of the individuals sanctioned [by the international community] on the 15th of March, I have sanctioned on the 17th of March.

“I think Australians would expect that their government would want the due diligence done on sanctions processes, no matter where they apply to make sure that we are addressing all those issues.”