Tánaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris said he has not been “involved in any conversations” about the State nationalising Aughinish Alumina, in the event of sanctions cutting off its exports to Russia. Speaking on Thursday, Harris said Ireland’s position supporting Ukraine in resisting Russia’s “despicable” invasion was clear. It was obvious that economic sanctions were the best way to put “maximum” pressure” on Russian leader Vladimir Putin, he said. The Government did not want to be seen to “cherry pick” its approach to EU sanctions aimed at limiting Putin’s ability to wage war. The Government opened an investigation into Aughinish Alumina, based in the Shannon estuary, following disclosures in The Irish Times that it was exporting vast amounts of alumina, the raw material for aluminium, which ends up in a supply chain that supplies Russia’s military industry.That Department of Enterprise investigation into Aughinish Alumina was “nearing completion”, Harris said.The Government would respond to its findings in tandem with the European Commission, the EU executive that proposes sanctions. “I haven’t been involved in any conversations about nationalisation, that’s the truth,” he said when asked about Aughinish.Previously Aughinish and alumina had been kept from successive rounds of economic sanctions targeting Russia and limiting its ability to continue its war in Ukraine, largely because the Irish plant also supplies significant amounts of the key material to European industry. Speaking on Thursday morning to a group of Brussels-based journalists visiting Ireland at the start of its EU presidency, Harris said he didn’t see the problem as a “binary choice”.“There has to be ways of addressing issues that enable crucial supply chains to continue into the European Union ... but [ensure] there’s no indirect assistance in any means, to this regime in relation to the war,” the Fine Gael leader said.Swedish authorities have determined that Rusal, the metals giant that owns the refinery in Co Limerick, remains under the control of sanctioned oligarch Oleg Deripaska, The Irish Times reported on Thursday.The ruling from Skatteverket, Sweden’s tax authority, states that all of Rusal’s operation in Europe – a group that includes the Irish plant – should be subject to EU sanctions targeting Russia that would include the freezing of assets.From the Shannon to Siberia: How alumina from a Limerick refinery enters Russia’s weapons supply chainAughinish Alumina in Co Limerick supplies vast amounts of raw materials to Russian aluminium smelters, according to an investigation by The Irish Times and the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).Read the full investigation here.Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to the Government to cut off the supply of raw materials to Russia produced in the plant. Speaking during a visit to Dublin on Wednesday marking the beginning of Ireland’s EU presidency, Mr Zelenskiy warned that “every tonne” of vital raw material shipped to Russia was being used against the Ukrainian people in Moscow’s war. He discussed the issue in a private meeting with Taoiseach Micheál Martin, and later appealed to the Government to cut off the supply of raw materials to Russia produced in the Co Limerick facility.