Kirill Dmitriev - the head of the Russian State Investment Fund - is considered one of the architects of Trump's 28-point plan "for peace in Ukraine". A Stanford graduate, he is not only close to Trump's son-in-law - Jared Kushner, but also to influential people in the Arab world. In addition, Dmitriev has close relations with Putin's family - the perfect choice for the unofficial negotiator for Russia.
Dmitriev - a diplomatic channel with Steve Witkoff
How important Dmitriev is to the Kremlin became clear with the beginning of Donald Trump's second term, when he became the leading figure in the peace talks in Ukraine. In February 2025, Putin appointed him as a "special envoy" for trade and investment with foreign countries. The appointment came just days after Dmitriev took part in the first meeting between a Russian and American delegation in Riyadh.
Dmitriev is now one of the Kremlin's key channels for diplomacy, says former Russian diplomat Boris Bondarev. While Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov communicates with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Dmitriev is negotiating with Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff. "Dmitriev is the channel to Witkoff," Bondarev says. "He is vulnerable - in fact, a real hole in the Trump administration. Almost everyone there is not a particularly strong diplomat, but Witkoff is the weakest. Therefore, Dmitriev was appointed to work with him and try to push Russian interests along this path.
How Dmitriev's career began
Kirill Dmitriev is the son of the famous biologist Alexander Dmitriev and was born in Kiev. However, he refuses to acknowledge his roots and claims that he was born not in Ukraine, but in the Soviet Union. After graduating from Stanford, he briefly stayed in the United States, where he began his career at the investment bank "Goldman Sachs" and worked for the consulting agency "McKinsey". Ultimately, he decided to build a career in Ukraine and Russia.
In Russia, one of the most important positions he held was at the Russian-American private equity management firm "Delta", where he managed about $500 million. In Ukraine, Dmitriev manages the investment fund of the son-in-law of the country's second president, Leonid Kuchma.
Dmitriev headed the Russian Direct Investment Fund in 2011. The idea of the organization is to attract Western capital to Russia. This position also sent him to the sanctions list of the United States and Europe at the very beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A connection with Putin's family?
But it was not his professional achievements that sent Dmitriev to the forefront of Russian diplomacy. The most important thing turned out to be his social capital - a network of close people that he built over the years. Ilya Shumanov, the former director of "Transparency International" in Russia, says that Dmitriev's relationship with the son-in-law of Ukrainian President Kuchma most likely played a big role. "However, the key piece of the puzzle is Ekaterina Tikhonova, who is allegedly Putin's daughter. Dmitriev's wife is very close to her", explains Shumanov.
According to the expert, the relationship between Dmitriev's family and Tikhonova's is more than friendly and they are closely related. Dmitriev is part of the board of directors of several large Russian companies, including those in which the state has a majority stake.
How Putin decided that Dmitriev was his man
Kirill Dmitriev's work as a mediator began during Donald Trump's first term. In 2020, The Daily Beast described him as "Putin's financier", who has a secret channel for negotiations with Jared Kushner. Trump's son-in-law dealt with the president's foreign policy tasks. Although he has not been a public figure in the Trump administration during his second term, he recently helped create Trump’s peace plan for Gaza and attended the Ukraine peace talks in Geneva.
During Trump’s first term, Dmitriev and Kushner discussed potential opportunities for American investment in Russia – talks that ultimately failed to produce any major projects. But Dmitriev has truly made his mark, becoming one of the most valuable figures in Russian foreign policy nearly two years after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine in December 2023, according to political analyst and former Putin mouthpiece Abbas Galyamov.
"After the war began, Putin could hardly travel anywhere (because of the arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court)", recalls Galyamov. "This feeling of isolation worried him deeply - and Russia as a whole. And then Kirill Dmitriev stepped in as the main organizer of the trip to Saudi Arabia and the UAE." In addition to organizing the trip itself, Dmitriev and his sovereign wealth fund managed to attract investment from these countries - an impressive feat against a backdrop of Western capital outflows. "In other words, he proved to be extremely effective on the international stage," says Galyamov.
Dmitriev vs. Lavrov
Galyamov sees Dmitriev as someone who is oriented towards resolving differences between the United States and Russia through compromise - in contrast to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, a staunch defender of the hard line. "When Putin feels that real negotiations are needed, Dmitriev comes to the fore," notes Galyamov. "But in many situations, Putin does not want to negotiate. Lavrov reflects this attitude."
Galyamov points out that during the last visit of the US special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow, Putin met with him along with Dmitriev and his aide Yuri Ushakov, while Lavrov was absent. But it is not yet clear whether this choice is a sign of the future of Russian diplomacy.
Author: Sergey Satanovsky