Dmitriev is seen as most US-savvy member of Russian elite

24/2/2025 6:05

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday

appointed Kirill Dmitriev, the chief of Russia's sovereign

wealth fund, as a special envoy on international economic and

investment cooperation.



A presidential decree announcing the appointment of

Dmitriev, considered the most U.S.-savvy member of Russia's

elite, comes after the highest-level U.S.-Russia talks since

Russia sent its forces into Ukraine in 2022.



Dmitriev, 49, is an investment banker who studied at Harvard

and Stanford in the 1990s and worked at U.S. firms Goldman Sachs

and McKinsey before returning to Moscow in the early 2000s.



Along with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Kremlin

foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov, Dmitriev participated in

the talks, which took place last week in Saudi Arabia's capital

Riyadh.



Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, Moscow's

point man for relations with the United States, said that a new

Russia-U.S. meeting at the level of departmental heads would

take place at the end of the week.



The wealth fund said separately that Dmitriev's new mandate

will include ties with the United States.



The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said in a

statement that Dmitriev "will continue to develop investment and

economic cooperation with both the countries of the Global South

and Western nations, including the United States of America."



The appointment will give Dmitriev a more formal role in the

Russian negotiating team.



Putin currently has about 25 special envoys on various

geographical areas and issues, who report to him directly.

Dmitriev and RDIF are under U.S. sanctions.



Dmitriev was involved in negotiations for the release from

prison this month of U.S. teacher Marc Fogel, according to a

Reuters source.



Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff was quoted by CNN as

saying a "gentleman from Russia" named Kirill had a lot to do

with the deal, under which the United States is also releasing a

jailed Russian.



Dmitriev ran the U.S. capital-backed private equity firm

Delta Equity Partners in Russia before being appointed by Putin

to head the RDIF, which was created in 2011 to facilitate

foreign investment in Russia. He played a role in early contacts

between Russia and Trump's team after Trump was first elected

president in 2016, as well as in building Russia's relationship

with Saudi Arabia, which led to an OPEC+ oil price agreement.



Dmitriev has met several times with Saudi Crown Prince

Mohammed bin Salman, who also played a role in setting up the

Riyadh meeting. Dmitriev had a separate meeting with the crown

prince after the talks in Riyadh.