4 minWorld
Former Polar LNG CEO Says Russian Money Funded Alaska Gas Venture Tied to Trump Peace Talks
Joel Riddle, who resigned as chief executive of Polar LNG in September, says the Alaska natural gas startup received secret funding from Russian energy giant Novatek, a company partly under U.S. sanctions.
A natural gas export venture that surfaced during President Donald Trump's Ukraine peace talks received secret financing from a Russian energy company, according to its former chief executive. Joel Riddle, who ran Polar LNG until he resigned in September, told The New York Times that he had been led to believe the money came from a firm in the United Arab Emirates, not from Novatek, a major Russian gas producer.
Polar LNG is a startup that has pitched a plan to export natural gas from Alaska's North Slope, a region with vast natural gas reserves. The Times reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the project last month with Trump envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, according to people familiar with the negotiations. White House officials, the newspaper reported, view energy deals of this kind as a way to ease relations with Moscow. Riddle said the arrangement was not only unlawful but also contrary to U.S. interests.
Novatek, which is under partial U.S. sanctions, was already set to supply technology for the project. Text messages reviewed by the Times show that Novatek deputy chairman Denis Solovyov and chief executive Leonid Mikhelson discussed sending as much as $15 million to Polar LNG's Abu Dhabi parent company, Tech Wave, to keep the effort going. « The first 5 million were supposed to arrive by today », Solovyov wrote to Riddle in early September.
In a statement to the Times, Novatek said it was moving to become a minority shareholder in the project. Polar LNG named Tim Talkington acting chief executive and described Riddle as a disgruntled former employee who had been fired for cause. Documents obtained by the Times, however, show that Riddle resigned six days before the company sent him a termination letter. Memos from the law firm Baker Botts, attached to his resignation letter, said Treasury Department sanctions enforcers had flagged potential Russia-related sanctions concerns.
The timing draws attention to recent sanctions legislation that specifically targets Novatek. Trump temporarily waived the law's Russia sanctions last week, saying the move was needed to keep peace talks alive. The effort to bring Novatek equipment to Alaska also involved Gentry Beach, a college friend of Donald Trump Jr., who said in February that he had negotiated with the Russian company. A spokesman for Trump Jr. said the two are no longer close, and Novatek said Beach played no role in its talks over a Polar LNG stake.
The Times reported no indication that Witkoff or Kushner knew of Polar LNG's ties to Novatek. Geoffrey Pyatt, a former State Department energy official under President Joe Biden, warned that the arrangement « feeds the belief that Putin can get an out-of-jail-free card ». Riddle said he and two other departing executives warned the Trump administration about the Russian financing and urged officials to investigate. The Energy Department did not respond to the Times's request for comment. « I felt like I did the right thing to notify authorities at the appropriate time », Riddle said.
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