Billionaire

 Russian energy companies received $500 million from a Saudi billionaire when Ukraine invaded

This year, just as the Kremlin began its savage invasion of Ukraine, a well-known Saudi billionaire invested more than $500 million in some of Russia's major state-linked energy companies, according to a stock exchange filing.

According to the documents, Kingdom Holding, the Saudi company Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal created, acquired depositary receipts for Russia's Gazprom in a deal that occurred sometime in February for the equivalent of $365 million.

In February, Alwaleed's company also invested $52 million in Rosneft. Kingdom also invested $109 million in US-based depository receipts for Lukoil, which are the equivalent of a foreign company's publicly listed shares, in a transaction that took place between February and March.

The motivation behind the investments was not disclosed in the documents.

However, the Saudi billionaire placed his bet on Russian businesses at the same time as the invasion of Ukraine led Western countries to impose severe economic sanctions on the Russian government and pushed a large number of Western-based companies out of Russia.

The stakes have lost value as a result of the sanctions' long-term effects on the Russian stock market and economy.

Deep connections exist between Saudi Arabia and Russia in the world energy industry. Over the last year, appeals have been made for OPEC+, a group made up of OPEC oil cartel members and additional allies like Russia, to increase oil output in order to satisfy the high demand.

Bloomberg was the first to report on the Kingdom's stake in the Russian companies, and it highlighted that the Saudi company had not responded to questions about whether it still owned the interests.

Alwaleed is one of the wealthiest people in the world, with a personal fortune assessed at $16.9 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. His company owns shares in a number of US-based businesses, such as Snap, Twitter, Uber, and Lyft.

Kingdom Holding is 16.9% owned by Saudi Arabia's national wealth fund, which is run by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to Bloomberg.

Due to worldwide shortages and shipping delays, which drove up the price of a barrel, oil company Saudi Aramco made a staggering $88 billion over the first half of this year. The company reported a 90% increase in profits year over year in the second quarter.

In the meantime, despite the conflict in Ukraine, Russia's oil and gas sector has continued to generate enormous profits. While the US and many Western companies stopped buying Russian oil, Europe continues to be extremely dependent on Russian energy.