Putin’s dealmaker with Trump calls for joint action in the Arctic
“The Arctic is too important for Cold War-style politics,” says Kirill Dmitriev, the influential businessman and government official that plays a key role in the ongoing Russian-US talks.
The General Director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund has spent more than two decades on cultivating ties with the US establishment. Kirill Dmitriev today has close friends in both the Kremlin and the Washington DC.
He is now apparently a key go-between for the Kremlin and the White House.
The Arctic should be part of a rapprochement between the two countries, Dmitriev argues.
“The Arctic is too important for Cold War-style politics. Russia & the US must find common ground to ensure stability, resource development & environmental protection. Cooperation is not a choice—it’s a necessity. The world is watching,” he wrote on X on March 8.
Since Donald Trump re-took office in January this year, Kirill Dmitriev has significantly boosted his activity on Elon Musk’s social median platform.
“Just published my first post in 12 years of joining this platform. More to come as US Russia cooperation is key to address world challenges. X platform will help the dialogue,” Dmitriev wrote on February 24.
“Russia is open for US Russia economic cooperation and believes such cooperations is key for more resilient global economy,” he followed up in a response to Trump’s report about his “serious discussions with President Vladimir Putin of Russia” and the “major Economic Development transactions which will take place between the United States and Russia.”
Kirill Dmitriev has later published a number of posts that includes praise of Trump and Vice President Vance and harassment of Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainians, as well as Germany and the European Union.
Dmitriev has been General Director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund since 2011. In February 2025, Putin appointed him to the post as Russia’s so-called Presidential Special Envoy on Investments and Economic Cooperation with Foreign Countries.
The 49-year-old businessman was born in Kyiv and was sent to the US as part of a student exchange program already as a 14-year-old. In 1996, he graduated from Stanford with a bachelor’s degree in economics and four years later with a master’s degree from Harvard.
When Donald Trump took office in 2017, Dmitriev was among the first officials from Russia to establish contact with the new administration. During the World Economic Forum in Davos that year, Dmitriev met with Trump advisor Anthony Scaramucci.
According to media reports, Dmitriev tried to establish a communication channel between Putin and Trump.
The role as mediator is now back on Dmitriev’s schedule. He was part of the Russian delegation that on February 18 met with US Foreign Secretary Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Dmitriev has himself a close relationship with the Saudis. On his own website, the businessman proudly describes how he in 2019 was awarded a prize by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his contributions for a strengthened cooperation between Russia and the Saudi Arabia.
Connected to Gazprombank, major Russian companies
The leader of the Direct Investment Fund reportedly has a personal connection to members of the Putin family. His wife Natalia Popova is believed to be a close friend of Katarina Tikhonova, the alleged daughter of the Kremlin dictator. Both Tikhonova and Popova hold top leadership posts in the company Innopraktika.
Among the supporters of the Innopraktika Fund is Gazprombank, an investigation shows.
Kirill Dmitriev is himself connected to Gazprombank and several more major Russian companies. He is board member of Gazprombank, Rostelekom, Russian Railways and Rosseti, and member of the supervisory council of diamond-mining company Alrosa.
It is not clear what kind of Russian-US cooperation in the Arctic Dmitriev has in mind. The two countries before Russia’s annexation of the Crimea had a comprehensive oil and gas cooperation in the region, and ExxonMobil in 2014 drilled a historical well in the Kara Sea.
The cooperation never paid off and ExxonMobil lost up to $1 billion.
When Trump in 2017 appointed ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson to the post as US Secretary of State, many Russians hoped that Russian-US cooperation in the Arctic would get a boost.
That, however, never happened.
Related stories from around the North:
Canada: Feds backtrack on characterizing northern military spending as new, CBC News
Finland: Finnish Defence Minister tells party leaders shrinking fighter fleet would be “irresponsible”, Yle News
Greenland: Greenlanders vote in election dominated by Trump’s control pledge, Reuters
Iceland: Iceland’s FM announces defence review, calls revamped security policy ‘urgent’, Eye on the Arctic
Norway: NATO’s Arctic dilemma: Two visions of the Arctic collide as NATO and Russia flex muscles, Eye on the Arctic special report
Russia: Russian gov promises new weapons while approval ratings slide, The Independent Barents Observer
Sweden: U.S. shows strength on the one-year anniversary of Sweden’s accession to NATO, The Independent Barents Observer
United States: U.S. experts call for ‘vigilance’ on Russian military buildup in Arctic, Alaska Public Media
