Russia just took control of a US gas project in Alaska
1 hour ago · 24 October 2026Share
An LNG tanker at anchor in the Karmsundet strait in Norway. File photo. Gordon Leggett · CC BY-SA 4.0
Russia's Novatek has been secretly funding and running a $25 billion gas project in Alaska.
And it did this before the US Treasury ever approved Russian involvement.
That's the claim from Joel Riddle. He used to run the project.
He's not alone either. Nearly his whole leadership team quit with him last month.
So what exactly happened?
The project is called Polar Train LNG, also known as Polar LNG. It's building a huge gas export terminal on Alaska's North Slope. The plan was to start shipping gas by the end of 2030.
Riddle says he was first told the money came from two places. One was Gentry Beach, an investor and a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. The other was Tech Wave Industrial Projects Management, a company in Abu Dhabi run by Rajeev Lehar and Bjørn Gundersen, who used to work for Novatek.
But here's the thing. Riddle says that wasn't true.
Beach never actually invested. He held no stake at all.
So where did the money really come from? Novatek. The Russian energy giant the US Treasury sanctioned back in 2023, after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Riddle told the Financial Times quote "I resigned as chief executive of Polar LNG because I felt uncomfortable that the Russian company Novatek was financing and ultimately controlling the strategic direction of the company."
That's the project's own former boss saying a sanctioned Russian company was running it behind the scenes.
And there are messages that back this up. The New York Times reviewed texts between Novatek's deputy chairman, Denis Solovyov, and its chief executive, Leonid Mikhelson. They talk about sending up to $15 million to Tech Wave, Polar LNG's parent company.
Riddle resigned on 19 September. That's one day after Congress passed the Graham Act, a sanctions bill written specifically to target Novatek over its ties to Vladimir Putin.
Before he quit, Riddle got legal advice from the law firm Baker Botts. They told him US agencies would likely see Gundersen's role in the project as a sanctions risk.
And here's a detail worth knowing. Documents show Riddle resigned six days before the company sent him a letter saying he was fired.
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Contains modified MODIS satellite data showing Alaska's coast and Cook Inlet on April 2, 2018. File photo. Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC · Public domain
Polar LNG rejects all of this. It says Riddle is a disgruntled former employee who was terminated for cause. It says its work is fully compliant with US law.
The company has put in a new acting chief executive, Tim Talkington, who used to run Goldman Sachs' Russia bank. And Polar LNG says it has applied to the Treasury for a licence to buy an unfinished piece of equipment from Novatek.
Novatek has its own version too. It says it signed an agreement with Polar Train in April, letting Tech Wave use its technology in Alaska. That was while Riddle was still chief executive.
Novatek says it's now moving to take a minority stake in the project. And it denies that any of this depends on getting sanctions relief.
But people close to the wider talks say otherwise.
They say the real plan is this. Novatek gives its expertise to the Alaska project. In return, the US lifts sanctions on Novatek's other big project, Arctic LNG 2, on Russia's Siberian coast. That project was expected to produce almost 20 million tonnes of gas a year before it got blacklisted in 2023.
And the timing lines up.
Congress passed the Graham Act to target Novatek directly. Two days before those sanctions were due to start, Donald Trump waived them.
This isn't happening in isolation either. The Alaska project has come up in the same high-level talks between Washington and Moscow that are trying to end the war in Ukraine. Those talks also cover selling off parts of the Russian oil company Lukoil, and involve Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. The New York Times says there's no sign either man knew about Novatek's ties to the Alaska project.
A White House official says the project was only briefly mentioned to the administration, with no detailed discussion. A Treasury Department official says the department won't comment on specific sanctions allegations, but takes potential violations seriously.
Geoffrey Pyatt used to handle energy policy at the State Department under President Biden. He says the arrangement feeds the idea that Vladimir Putin can get out of trouble without real consequences.
So what don't we know?
Whether the Treasury will actually approve any of this. Whether anyone in the Trump administration knew the details of Novatek's role. And how much control Novatek really has over the project right now.
Here's where that leaves things. A sanctioned Russian company has already put money into a US strategic energy project once, without permission.
And now it's asking for permission to do it again.
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