And you are taking what politicians say on faith. Here's a view from the other side:
Critics, including U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), were quick to blast the decision.
“Citing a ‘lack of industry interest’ is nothing more than fantasy from an administration that shuns U.S. energy production,” she said in a statement to CBS News. “Cook Inlet is the sole source of the natural gas that more than 400,000 people in Southcentral Alaska — and significant military bases that are critical to our national security — depend on. I can say with full certainty, based on conversations as recently as last night, that Alaska’s industry does have interest in lease sales in Cook Inlet. To claim otherwise is simply false, not to mention stunningly short-sighted.”
I don't get the "lack of use case" comments. There is no use case TODAY. But what does having 25Gbit fiber enable to be built TOMORROW? Shared photorealistic VR spaces immediately come to mind.
Is it? My understanding is that he completely peaced out of Russia shortly after Putin came to power and has been uninvolved in Russian affairs for ~15 years.
Also, while he grew up in Russia and made his fortune there, he's lived in the West for almost 20 years now. The amount of influence he has over war-peace decisions in Russia is zero. He's not Timchenko or Rotenberg.
FWIW I am not familiar with any protocol that allows one deranged person to launch nukes. I think the minimum # of people required is 3? In the US it's 4, IIRC (edit - could be 3 also)