BRUSSELS, July 7 — The man charged with keeping Russia’s energy machine running through war and sanctions was born in a Ukrainian city that now lies in ruins. Alexander Novak, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister for energy policy, traces his origins to Avdiivka, a town in Ukraine’s Donetsk region that has become a byword for destruction since the full-scale invasion began. Against this backdrop, Novak has emerged as one of the most consequential figures in Moscow’s effort to weaponise its energy wealth while defending its own infrastructure from Ukrainian drone attacks.
Appointed deputy prime minister in 2020, he previously served as Minister of Energy from 2012 through 2020, a tenure that saw Russia cement its role as a dominant global supplier. Novak was born in 1971 in Avdiivka, then part of the Soviet Union.
The city, now a front-line ghost town, is a potent symbol of the war’s devastation. That biographical detail adds a layer of historical irony to his current role: a Ukrainian-born official now responsible for shielding Russia’s energy sector from the consequences of a conflict that has ravaged his birthplace.
The Sanctions Target
The European Union and the United States placed Novak under sanctions in 2022 for his central role in Russia’s energy sector. The measures freeze his assets and bar travel, part of a broader Western campaign to starve the Kremlin of revenue. Novak has continued to work from Moscow, coordinating Russia’s response to the penalties and managing the complex task of rerouting oil and gas flows to new markets.
His career path before entering government included stints at Norilsk Nickel, the giant metals and mining company, and in the Krasnoyarsk regional government. That blend of corporate and regional experience shaped a technocrat who understands both the mechanics of extraction and the politics of distribution.
War and the Refinery Crisis
In the corridors of Russia’s energy ministry, Novak has overseen the protection of critical infrastructure as Ukrainian drones have struck deep inside Russian territory. The January 25, 2024 drone strike on the Omsk refinery was a significant blow. Novak personally coordinated the emergency repairs and adjusted fuel supply schedules to prevent shortages across Siberia and beyond.
What is at stake is more than just production figures. Russia’s ability to refine its own crude and supply domestic consumers has become a matter of political stability.
A fuel crisis in winter, with long queues at petrol stations, would undermine the Kremlin’s narrative of a nation weathering Western pressure. Novak’s task has been to prevent that scenario. The wider picture extends beyond Russia’s borders.
Novak has been a key figure in OPEC+ negotiations, the alliance of oil-producing nations that has managed global supply levels since 2016. His presence at those talks gives Moscow a seat at a table that shapes world energy prices, even as Western governments try to isolate Russia diplomatically.
A Technocrat at War
Novak is not a fire-breathing nationalist. He is a Soviet-era engineer turned manager, the kind of figure who speaks in production targets and pipeline capacities rather than ideological slogans. That makes him, in some ways, more dangerous to Western interests: he is effective at his job.
His dual role — protecting Russia’s energy infrastructure while expanding its influence in global markets — places him at the centre of a conflict that is fought as much with oil tankers and drone strikes as with artillery shells. The Omsk refinery attack showed that Ukraine is willing to hit energy targets deep inside Russia.
Novak’s response showed that Moscow is willing to adapt. As the war grinds into its third year, Novak remains in post, sanctioned but not isolated, coordinating a sector that funds the Russian state. The man from Avdiivka now sits in Moscow, calculating how to keep the oil flowing and the war machine fuelled.
What happens next depends, in no small part, on whether his calculations hold.
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