Report: Russian giant secretly funded Alaska LNG firm

Polar LNG, a US firm planning to liquefy Alaska natural gas using technology from Russia's Novatek, secretly received start-up funding from the Russian company, and its chief executive resigned in September saying he had been misled about where the money came from, The New York Times reported.

Why it matters: The project has been discussed in US and Russian talks on ending the war in Ukraine, so hidden financing from the Russian partner that was to supply its technology goes to the centre of the proposed energy deal.

Data as of October 23, 2026, 21:50 ET: New York Times report of October 23, 2026, updated 21:39 ET, read in preview only in this run because the full article is paywalled; this item rests only on the readable portion, which attributes the funding account to interviews and documents and to people involved in the company's negotiations. Single-sourced developing item; the amounts involved and any response from Polar LNG, Novatek, the White House or the Kremlin were in the unread portion and are not reported here.

Polar LNG planned to buy liquefaction technology from Russia’s Novatek, tap the large natural gas supply in northern Alaska, liquefy it and export it abroad, The New York Times reported. The plan was discussed last month by President Vladimir Putin with President Donald Trump’s peace envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, as one of a series of energy deals US officials see as a route to smoother relations with Moscow and an eventual end to the war in Ukraine, the report said.

The funding did not match that American framing. Joel Riddle, Polar LNG’s chief executive until he resigned in September, said he had been misled about the sources of the start-up funding, which ostensibly came from a company in the United Arab Emirates, while the Times reported that the money in fact came secretly from the Russian company that was to provide the technology.

Report: Russian giant secretly funded Alaska LNG firm

Sources