Selling Ukraine for a handful of rubles

Jorge Costa Oliveira

Several newspapers report that U.S. companies and investors with close ties to Donald Trump have already begun negotiations to acquire assets or jointly exploit Ukrainian and Russian natural resources. The tip of this iceberg is the recent proposed “peace plan” [with 28 points], whose point 14 stipulates allocating $100 billion in frozen Russian assets [almost all in Europe, especially at Euroclear] to “be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine”, with “the remainder of the frozen Russian funds [to] be invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle that will implement joint projects in specific areas.”

After a lopsided agreement between the United States and Ukraine (in April 2025) for the joint exploitation of Ukraine’s mineral wealth (Ukraine holds 5% of the world’s critical minerals, including large deposits of graphite, titanium, lithium, and uranium), at the U.S.–Russia summit held in Alaska (in August 2025) Trump reportedly discussed energy deals with Putin. Meanwhile, Russia’s chief negotiator (and CEO of Russian Direct Investment Fund), Kirill Dmitriev, said he believes “Russia and the United States can successfully cooperate in the Arctic.” The execution of agreements to exploit energy resources and critical minerals is moving at speed, with members of the Trump family, their partners and financiers acting as spearheads.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), citing a European security official and a person familiar with the talks, reports that businessmen linked to the Kremlin – Timchenko, Kovalchuk, and the Rotenbergs – offered U.S. businessmen gas concessions in the Sea of Okhotsk, as well as at four other locations. The WSJ also mentions rare-earth mining opportunities near the massive nickel mines of Norilsk and at six other unexplored locations in Siberia.

Elliott Investment Management, run by Paul Singer, a donor to Trump’s campaign, is considering acquiring a stake in a pipeline that carries Russian natural gas to Europe.

Also according to the WSJ, Gentry Beach – a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. and a Trump campaign donor – has been holding talks with Novatek to take a 9.9% stake in the Russian “Arctic LNG” project, contingent on the lifting of sanctions.

Another Trump donor, Stephen Lynch, reportedly paid lobbyist Ches McDowell – an associate of Trump Jr. – $600,000 this year for services aimed at obtaining U.S. Treasury authorization to buy the Nord Stream 2 pipeline (controlled by Gazprom), which is up for sale in a bankruptcy process in Switzerland.

Exxon Mobil senior vice president Neil Chapman met with Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin (another Kremlin-controlled energy giant) in Doha, Qatar, to discuss Exxon’s possible return to a major gas exploration project on Sakhalin Island.

In addition, Exxon, billionaire Todd Boehly, and investors from the UAE have proposed acquiring international assets owned by Lukoil.

This is what has surfaced in the media marketplace. Many more Russian-American deals are likely being prepared in secrecy.

This entanglement of geopolitics and business benefiting Trump’s family, partners, or financiers is already a defining feature of the most corrupt U.S. administration in living memory. The instrumentalization of presidential power to secure deals for family and associates – already seen in the protection of cryptocurrencies, access to the president, the monetization of presidential pardons and the deregulation of AI – needs clear red lines.

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