US investor with ties to Trump family looks to Murmansk

Beach, who is reported to be a friend of President Donald Trump’s eldest son, told the New York Times that he had signed a cooperation agreement with Russian gas producer Novatek. The deal envisages using a movable LNG plant being built at Novatek’s construction center in the Murmansk region.

The plan is to deploy the plant on Alaska’s North Slope, one of the world’s most gas-rich regions.

The agreement comes as the Trump administration continues to continues to cosy up with leading representatives of the Kremlin dictatorship.

According to Beach, the deal was negotiated with Novatek CEO and co-owner Leonid Mikhelson during meetings in Dubai and Europe last fall.

Beach stressed that his relationship with the Trump family played no role in securing the agreement, but acknowledged to the New York Times that “this project is known about at the highest levels” in both Moscow and Washington.

“It’s time for all of us to work together,” Beach told the newspaper. He described Mikhelson as “very pro-American.”

Novatek has several years of experience building so-called gravity-based structures — massive movable platforms designed for LNG production at remote sites.

Two such structures were built at the company’s LNG Construction Center in Belokamenka, across the Kola Bay from Murmansk. Both were later towed to Utrenny on the Gydan Peninsula, where Novatek is developing its Arctic LNG 2 project.

Construction of a third structure was launched but later halted as international sanctions against Novatek’s subsidiaries intensified.

This is most likely the movable LNG plant referred to by Beach. Its current stage of completion is unclear, but satellite images from October 2025 show the barge in one of the two dry docks at the Belokamenka facility.

Virtually all entities involved in the Arctic LNG 2 project are under sanctions imposed by the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries. These include the Arctic LNG 2 operating company, Novatek Murmansk, as well as many of the vessels involved in transportation of the LNG.

The United States has been a leading force behind sanctions targeting Russia’s energy sector.

In November 2023, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on the Arctic LNG 2 project. Earlier, the Saam, a 400-meter vessel intended to serve as a transshipment hub, had also been sanctioned. In May 2024, the Treasury expanded its measures to include several heavy-lift carriers essential for transporting key project components.

The measures were intended to “limit Russia’s future energy revenues and impede Russia’s development of future energy projects,” the Treasury said at the time.

Two years later, the tone from Washington toward Moscow has shifted radically. The sanctions, however, remain in place — for now.