Last May, when the Obama administration was furiously cracking down on the Kremlin in the aftermath of the CIA-backed Ukraine presidential coup and the resulting "territorial expansion" by Russia which promptly took over the Crimea peninsula (and is on its way to annexing the Donetsk republic) with attempts to "isolate" Russia, one prominent US company dared to defy the White House embargo and extended its partnership with Moscow. 

This is what we posted last May: "Several of the largest oil companies in the world are doubling down in Russia despite moves by the West to isolate Russia and its economy. ExxonMobil and BP separately signed agreements with Rosneft – Russia's state-owned oil company – to extend and deepen their relationships for energy exploration. The U.S. slapped sanctions on Rosneft's CEO Igor Sechin in late April, freezing his assets and preventing him from obtaining visas.

However, the sanctions do not extend to Rosneft itself, allowing western companies to continue to do business with the Russian oil giant. ExxonMobil signed an agreement with Rosneft, extending its partnership to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal on Russia's pacific coast. Known as the Far East LNG project, the export terminal will receive natural gas from Russia's eastern fields as well as from Sakhalin-1, an island off Russia's east coast. Rosneft announced the deal in a press release on its website on May 23.