Well partly, but mainly, it's the money.
And power projection.
From The Barents Observer:
CEO of Russian private natural gas producer Novatek, Leonid Mikhelson, has a net worth estimated at $24 billion by Forbes.
Try to spell it out: “Six-billion-dollars-in-one-year.” That is more than $16 million per day. Or $685,000 per hour. And yeah… we’re only talking about the increase in Mikhelson’s fortune. During 2018.
Leonid Mikhelson is now the wealthiest person in Russia. The richest of the 98 Russian businessmen (including two women) ranked at Forbes World’s Billionaires List.
Last year, he was ranked 3rd on the list with a net worth estimated to $18 billion, as reported by Barents Observer.
Leonid Mikhelson holds about 28% of the shares in Novatek, Russia’s largest private natural gas producer.
With principal operating areas on the Yamal Peninsula, Novatek is currently the largest industrial investor in the circumpolar Arctic. In December 2017, it started production of liquid natural gas (LNG) at the Yamal LNG plant in Sabetta. Now, the Arctic LNG 2 project sails up, by Novatek itself estimated to cost $25,5 billion....MUCH MORE
