The diesel deal with the United States, the opportunity to expand the supply of Russian fertilizers, and now Russia is offering to work together in the Arctic. How could the Arctic unite Russia and the United States, and what can Moscow offer Washington in return for lifting sanctions on Russian gas?
Russia is exploring the possibility of working with the United States in the Arctic, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
"In the Arctic, which I mentioned, we are actively working with many countries around the world, and we are interested in working together. More recently, European partners worked with us in our fields, and Chinese partners worked with us. We are currently exploring the possibility of working together with American partners," Putin said at the summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
What kind of joint work can Russia have with the United States?
We are talking about LNG projects. Indeed, after 2022, due to sanctions against Russia, European companies withdrew from participating in gas projects with Russia - in Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG – 2. However, cooperation with Chinese companies has reached a new level, says Igor Yushkov, an expert at the National Energy Security Fund (NWF). and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation. There are two Chinese shareholders in Arctic LNG – 2, CNPC and CNOOC, who were initially afraid of US sanctions against the project and froze their participation. However, Beijing has not changed its policy, it's just that Chinese companies CNPC and CNOOC did not risk access to the dollar, says Mikhail Vakilian, an expert at the Institute for Technology Development of the Fuel and Energy Complex.
But after a year and a half, everything changed. In the second half of 2025, China began buying gas from the Arctic LNG–2 substation plant, allocating an entire terminal for the project, and this year it opened a second terminal only for Russian LNG. China even resumed the delivery of modules for the completion of the third stage of Arctic LNG –2, although supplies had previously been suspended.
What does Russia want from the United States in the Arctic? "Russia needs two things. The first is the market, the second is hardware. The lifting of sanctions against Arctic LNG–2 and its gas carriers will bring back customers from Japan, India, and Southeast Asia and remove the discount currently being taken by the only customer, China. As for iron, the liquefaction compressors at Yamal LNG and Arctic LNG–2 are powered by Baker Hughes turbines, which are an American company. The service, spare parts, and modernization of these machines are subject to American export bans," says Vakilian.
"This is the same scheme as with the diesel deal. We offer the United States mutually beneficial projects and economic cooperation in general in exchange for easing anti-Russian sanctions and putting pressure on Ukraine. We show that this cooperation can be very multifaceted in various fields: diesel, fertilizers, LNG, and so on.",
– says an expert from the Federal National Library of Economics and the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation.
What can Russia offer the United States in the field of LNG in exchange for the lifting of sanctions? Russia can technologically help the United States build an LNG plant in Alaska. We are talking about the Polar LNG project worth $ 25 billion.
"Novatek has a technological solution for the Alaska LNG project, which it has applied to Arctic LNG–2. These are reinforced concrete platforms on which liquefaction equipment is poured – and this is, in fact, an LNG plant. Novatek has already built two such platforms with equipment, and in Belokamenka it has built a center for the construction of large-tonnage offshore structures. The problem is that both this center and the Arctic LNG–2 plant itself have been sanctioned by the United States. Therefore, we can build such a plant in Alaska in exchange for the lifting of sanctions from at least the center for the construction of large–capacity platforms," says Yushkov.
According to him, Russia can fill a platform in this center, build an LNG plant on it, and only then move it to Alaska. This is a simpler solution, because it is expensive to build something in the Arctic itself, and it creates time constraints and the possibility of importing equipment, etc.
"It's not a fact that this story will come to fruition, because there are many sanctions problems and questions about the economics of the project, but nevertheless the Americans are interested in our technologies for Alaska, and Russia uses and says it can do it.",
– says Yushkov. However, one should not forget that Russia is the main competitor of the United States in gas, and in recent years the American leadership has consistently squeezed Russian gas from the European market, the expert adds. And helping LNG from the United States occupy the market share that Russia has lost is not such an idea.
However, besides Arctic LNG–2, there is another Russian project that could benefit from cooperation with the United States. This is Yamal LNG, which is not affected by US sanctions. However, the problem is different. From January 1, 2027, the EU prohibits the supply of any Russian LNG. "In the first half of the year, Europe took almost all the plant's products – 9.89 million tons. In two months, these volumes will need a new route and a new buyer, and an American trader at this place looks natural," says Vakilian.
In addition, Gazprom, which is negotiating with China on the Power of Baikal (formerly the Power of Siberia – 2), can also benefit. "Cooperation with the United States is Russia's trump card in the price negotiation. China has been negotiating with Gazprom for a long time, hoping that Russian gas has nowhere to go, and the American company in the Arctic is breaking this calculation," says Mikhail Vakilian.
If you look even further, Russia and the United States may have two more points of contact – on oil projects and on rare earth metals. Vostok Oil is waiting for the lifting of sanctions against Rosneft. There is no way to do without Americans on the Pobeda shelf, which has not been developed since 2014, and it requires underwater production facilities and a service for drilling in icy seas, where American companies are strongest. An unobvious topic is rare metals. The Trump administration is looking for them all over the world, and Tomtor, one of the largest rare earth deposits, lies in the Arctic zone of Yakutia," the source concludes.
Olga Samofalova
