Sanctioned Russian mining project in the Arctic is linked to Kazakh billionaires and the family of Deputy PM Yury Trutnev, Arctida reports

Despite U.S. sanctions, Russia’s largest investment project in the Arctic, the Baimskoye deposit in Chukotka, turns out to be linked to Kazakh billionaires, according to a report by the independent outlet Arctida. The publication traced how ownership of the mining and processing plant, valued at more than 1 trillion rubles ($12.5 billion), has changed in recent years.

Until 2018, the deposit belonged to Roman Abramovich and Alexander Abramov, who sold it to KAZ Minerals, the Kazakh corporation owned by billionaires Vladimir Kim and Oleg Novachuk. By that time, the KAZ Minerals already had experience developing large copper pits in Kazakhstan, but it had not yet worked in Arctic conditions.

Because of Western sanctions imposed after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, foreign ownership of the deposit became problematic, and the assets were transferred to the Russian closed-end mutual investment fund Palmira Severa (lit. “Palmyra of the North”), which is managed by the company Ruskapital. The latter was previously controlled by Rid Oil-Perm, whose co-owner until 2023 was Dmitry Trutnev, the son of current Russian Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev. The elder Trutnev is actively overseeing development of the deposit, the article says.

Construction of the mining and processing plant was handled by the company Vega Razvitiye, which, according to the investigative outlet Sistema, is controlled by the Dubai legal entity Nord Rim DMCC, affiliated with Vladimir Kim through RBK Bank. Over the past two years, Vega Razvitiye received more than 10 billion rubles ($124.8 million) from GDK Baimskaya for managing construction of the plant. According to Arctida, Kim’s partner Oleg Novachuk also retains links to the Chukotka project. Until March 2025, he remained a founder of Vega Razvitiye.

Another builder of the plant’s infrastructure is Severnye Inzhenernye Resheniya. Its founder was the company Nomad Construction Limited, which is linked to Alen Baigazin, a Kazakh business partner of Novachuk’s.

Although the Russian project enjoys significant state support, its ultimate beneficiaries appear to be foreign individuals.