How Western Sanctions Are Strangling Putin’s Arctic Gas Ambitions

  • Pipeline exports to Europe have slumped, turning focus to LNG
  • Novatek’s Arctic LNG 2 is crucial to expanding export capacity
Russia is currently the fourth-largest LNG exporter in the world, but restrictions on Arctic LNG 2 have crimped its ambitions.Photographer: Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP/Getty Images
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Russia’s fortress economy has proved remarkably resilient to an onslaught of Western sanctions. Two years after the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, it continues to fund a costly war and to prop up President Vladimir Putin.

But there’s at least one spot where the pain is very real.