Trump Jr. ally reached covert agreement with Russians in Alaska — NYT
Photo: US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin (Getty Images)
Texas investor Gentry Beach, who has ties to US President Donald Trump's family, plans to extract gas with Russians in Alaska. He quietly signed an agreement, The New York Times reports.
Read also: How Russia tried to leverage huge economic deals to win US support - The Economist reveals
Agreement details
According to Beach, last fall, he quietly signed a contract with one of Russia's largest energy companies for joint gas development in the United States.
The project is in its early stages, and financial details have not been disclosed. The Russian side has confirmed negotiations on the use of its technologies for gas liquefaction in northern Alaska, although it has not directly confirmed cooperation with Beach.
The investor notes that the project is known at the highest level in both Moscow and Washington.
The deal itself was discussed during meetings in Dubai and Europe with billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, CEO of Novatek, who is under sanctions from the UK and Canada, but not the US or the EU.
Connection to Trump
Gentry Beach is a college friend of Donald Trump Jr. and was the deputy chairman of finance during Trump's inauguration in 2017.
According to the investor, the current US administration is creating more favorable conditions for business with Russia.
"Trump is a transactional president. I don’t think people would have felt as comfortable working with Russian companies during the Biden administration as they do during the Trump administration," Beach says.
The agency recalls that after Russia invaded Ukraine, most Western countries severed economic ties with Moscow. However, Trump has repeatedly spoken of tremendous opportunities for deals if the war ends.
"Mr. Beach’s deal could represent the first known instance of an American investor formalizing a new business venture with a major Russian company since the Kremlin started promoting deal-making opportunities to the Trump administration a year ago," the article says.
As the NYT points out, American companies remain very skeptical about doing business with Russia, and the Trump administration imposed significant new sanctions against the Russian oil industry last fall.
Meeting in Alaska
On August 15, 2025, Trump met with Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, to discuss the war in Ukraine.
Initially, everyone hoped that this would help to quickly reach an agreement and even organize a direct conversation between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
But in reality, everything turned out to be more complicated: the negotiations stalled, and there has been no real progress so far.
