America First, with Russian money: the sanctioned Novatek's joint Alaskan gas business with Trump

American energy was promised, but according to the company's former CEO, Russian money and Russian control actually lie behind a multibillion-dollar Alaskan gas project — a plan that even made it to the negotiating table between Washington and Moscow. The Polar Train LNG affair ties together business threads leading to the Trump family, sanctions against Russia, and the energy deals from which the American president's entourage claims to expect an end to the war in Ukraine — at least rhetorically, while in reality looking only after their own gain, at Ukraine's expense. Former CEO Joel Riddle claims he left because he realized that the company's financing and strategic direction were actually being determined by Russia's Novatek.

The details of the case were brought to public attention through investigative articles by the Financial Times and the New York Times. According to these reports, Riddle took the job believing that the project was backed by American investor Gentry Beach and the Abu Dhabi-based TechWave, but later concluded that part of the money was coming from the Russian gas giant. He left his post at the company in September, followed by several fellow executives, including CFO Dan Chandra. The FT reviewed WhatsApp messages in which Denis Solovyov, a Novatek executive, discussed financing the project and speeding up transfers. The use of Russian technology was no secret, so the current dispute is not about that, but about where the money comes from and who actually makes the decisions. According to Riddle, he was given a misleading picture of exactly these issues, while the project presented itself to the public as an American energy venture. According to the New York Times, the legal memos attached to his departure, prepared by the law firm Baker Botts, warned of sanctions risks and indicated that U.S. financial authorities already had concerns about the links to Novatek.

The planned facility would liquefy natural gas from Alaska's northern oil- and gas-producing region known as the North Slope, and then ship it to buyers by tanker. The March report by the Oil & Gas Journal estimated an annual capacity of seven million tons, a 2029–2030 start date, and an investment cost of $8–9 billion, while the FT's October article describes it as a $25 billion venture, with public statements offering no explanation for the discrepancy. The main argument behind the plans was the short shipping route to Asia: Alaska is about 3,600 miles from Japan, whereas from the Gulf Coast the voyage is more than ten thousand miles.

Polar LNG would buy an unfinished, massive, gravity-based offshore structure from Novatek, on which the liquefaction plant would be built. In its October 23 statement, the company confirmed that it had requested authorization for this from OFAC, the U.S. Treasury Department's sanctions office. In the same statement, it named TechWave as its financier, said it was seeking American investors and partners, and promised the first shipment by the end of 2030 — provided, of course, that the permits, the money and the technical conditions are in place.

Gentry Beach's role is particularly delicate because he is not linked to the Trump family through some casual business acquaintance. The Texas investor is a college friend of Donald Trump Jr., took part in organizing political support for Trump, and Reuters reported back in February that, according to his own account, he had already struck a deal with Novatek on an Alaskan gas development. So the plan for cooperation with Russia appeared in the press months before the executives' departure, yet Riddle now claims that he only later discovered that Beach had not invested a single dollar in Polar Train and was neither a shareholder nor an executive of the company. The sanctions issue is not straightforward either: Novatek has been subject to U.S. financial restrictions since 2014, which originally banned only certain longer-term financing deals, did not freeze the company's assets, and did not prohibit all dealings with it. However, Novatek's flagship Arctic project, the operator of the Arctic LNG 2 project, was separately placed on a sanctions list in 2023.

This is where the Alaskan deal connects to the diplomacy surrounding the war in Ukraine. According to press reports, a scheme emerged under which Novatek would provide technology and expertise for the Alaskan project in exchange for an easing of sanctions against Arctic LNG 2; Novatek, naturally, denies tying its technology to the lifting of sanctions and describes the Alaskan plan as an independent business opportunity. According to the New York Times, Putin discussed the idea in September with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and with Jared Kushner, though according to the White House's comments, the plan was only mentioned briefly and in general terms, with no details discussed, and the report does not make clear whether Witkoff and Kushner were aware of the alleged Russian financing of Polar LNG. Novatek, however, told the newspaper that it wants to acquire a minority stake in the project — meaning it wants not only to sell its technology but also to become an owner.

Polar LNG rejects the former CEO's accusations and claims that Riddle was dismissed, not that he resigned. The company stresses that it operates lawfully, and has entrusted interim leadership to Tim Talkington, who until August 2022 was CEO of Goldman Sachs' Russian banking arm. Talkington's career, however, only reinforces suspicions that a very different business network is being organized around a project advertised under the banner of American energy independence. Whether the Trump family would directly gain any financial benefit, or whether a single Alaskan project would determine Washington's Ukraine policy, cannot be established from this with the kind of certainty that would hold up in court. What is certain, though, is that a sanctioned Russian energy company has turned up in an American strategic investment, that the deal was brokered by someone from the Trump family's circle of friends, and that the plan made its way into the highest-level talks on ending the war. When, in the very same rooms where the so-called peace — or, in more practical terms, Ukraine's capitulation — is being negotiated, billion-dollar deals are also being discussed, the interests of the victim states can hardly play an important role, especially under a president who loves money above all else and regards himself as the greatest dealmaker in history.

Ugar