US sanctions (spoiler alert: there were none) 

In 2014, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Russians in Putin’s inner circle. On the eve of the sanctions announcement, Gennady Timchenko, who is former co-owner of the oil trader Gunvor and Mikhelson’s business partner, stated that he had already managed to sell a significant portion of his foreign property. For a long time, the international energy group Gunvor has been selling most of the oil from Russia. 

The US Treasury’s clarification makes it clear that the company would not have been subject to US sanctions even if Timchenko had remained a co-owner of the company. The U.S. Treasury Department’s sanctions regulations include the “50% rule”: if a person on the blacklist owns 50% or more of any company, the assets of that company are also subject to blocking, and U.S. persons and firms are prohibited from doing business with it. Gennady Timchenko owned less than 50% of the business.

 Yamal LNG

Yamal LNG is a large project for the production and processing of liquefied natural gas. The construction of this enterprise was personally supervised by Vladimir Putin, who was obsessed with the idea of building a plant in the Far North. Putin approved the investment project and personally took investors to Yamal.

Yamal LNG is a joint venture between Novatek (50.1%), TotalEnergies (20%), CNPC (20%) and the Silk Road Fund (9.9%). The natural gas liquefaction plant was constructed in three phases and launched in 2017, 2018 and 2019, respectively.

In 2023, Yamal LNG became one of the most profitable projects in Russia according to Forbes. In 2022, it earned 840.2 billion rubles and ranked second after Gazprom. However, the idea to produce liquefied natural gas in the north of Yamal (a peninsula in northern Western Siberia) first appeared in the early 2000s. According to Forbes, the project passed from hand to hand, and in the early 2010s, Novatek took over. 

In June 2013, Novatek and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a cooperation agreement on the Yamal LNG project at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. It was a long-term contract for the supply of at least 3 million tons of liquefied natural gas per year to the Chinese side. In September 2013, Novatek and CNPC signed an agreement on the Chinese company’s entry into the project.

In 2014, the United States imposed sanctions on the gas company and Mikhelson’s partner Gennady Timchenko. Yamal LNG was cut off from Western loans, so it had to look for money from the National Welfare Fund and Chinese banks.

The construction of Arctic LNG 2

Arctic LNG 2 is Novatek’s project for natural gas production and liquefied natural gas production. It is a giant floating platform with a liquefied natural gas plant located on it with a total height of 90 m and a weight of 640,000 tons. Mikhelson managed to build the first line of the Arctic LNG 2 floating plant and send it via the Northern Sea Route to Yamal. However, due to US sanctions, Putin’s henchman has been having problems with this process. Critical gas turbines, previously contracted to the American Baker Hughes company, had to be replaced with electric drives from China’s Shanghai Electric. The US Treasury Department also included Arctic LNG 2 in the SDN list, which automatically prohibits US citizens and companies from conducting any transactions with SDN participants. 

Mikhelson’s wealthy daughter and his passion of collecting pieces of art 

In the Western press, Mikhelson’s daughter Victoria has been called the richest bride not only in Russia but also in the world. She graduated from New York University with a degree in art history. In 2016, she became a member of the board of trustees of the New Museum in New York. Leonid Mikhelson opened a foundation to support contemporary art, V-A-C (Victoria – the Art of Being Contemporary), named after his daughter. It contains famous works by Russian and foreign artists. The pearl of the collection is Francis Bacon’s 1953 painting “Sketch for a Portrait,” which the billionaire purchased at Christie’s in 2011 for $28.7 million. Victoria has also been curating projects for this foundation for many years.

At the same time, according to various sources, she may be a member of the board of trustees of one of the most popular museums in the world (MoMA, New York). Leonid Mikhelson joined this board back in 2013. The Trap Aggressor editorial team sent relevant inquiries to MoMA, but has not yet received a response.

Leonid Mikhelson is one of the richest people in Russia. He continues building up his capital, buying up shares in companies and the most expensive works of art. So does his daughter, who is successfully developing her career in the US and Russia, receiving expensive gifts from her father. In 2023, Michelson transferred to his daughter the GES-2 company, which owns the eponymous House of Culture and the Udarnik cinema building, as well as a 2.3% stake in Novatek. Last year, Victoria received 6.3 billion rubles in dividends for this package. At the same time, 10 years into the war in Ukraine, the US and EU have not yet added Mikhelson and his family to their sanctions lists. 

It is important to add that the global coalition of civil society organizations B4Ukraine is actively working with the goal to make the EU impose sanctions on LNG. After all, limiting the flow of Russian liquefied natural gas to Europe is necessary to deprive Russia of the economic resources that fuel its armed aggression against Ukraine.