A historic meeting was held in Saudi Arabia, at which representatives of the US and Russia met for the first time in direct talks about the war in Ukraine. Kiev and Europe reacted sharply because the meeting took place without their representatives, and there are doubts that the Donald Trump administration will negotiate an unfair "peace" for Ukraine with the aggressor Vladimir Putin.
The US was represented at the meeting by Secretary of State Mark Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Walz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. Donald Trump's strategy is clear – a quick ceasefire so that the new American president can go down in history as a peacemaker, even if it means Ukraine's capitulation.
However, Vladimir Putin's negotiating team, which is expected to conduct a dialogue with the Americans in the coming weeks or months, is more mysterious. There are some familiar and some not-so-familiar faces to the general public. Western and Ukrainian media are drawing attention to one person who has been described as an "amazing character". He is the head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev.
Russian journalist Renat Davletgildeev believes that the "most dangerous" of Russia's negotiating team is Kirill Dmitriev. "Naryshkin (the director of foreign intelligence) and Ushakov do not pose a particular danger. They were included in the team because they believe they are part of the Russian political elite. This is far from the truth. Kirill Dmitriev is an amazing character,” the journalist said.
„Kirill Dmitriev was born in Kiev, moved to the United States with his family as a teenager and essentially grew up in America. This is a very curious figure, not public. He is an absolute American. He received an excellent education - he graduated from one of the prestigious American universities. His classmates are current senators and congressmen,” Davletgildeev told the Ukrainian TV channel FREEDOM.
„Obviously, Putin will rely on him. Because he can speak the same language both literally and figuratively with his Western partners. It is also important to understand that Dmitriev's wife is the best friend of Katerina Tikhonova, Putin's youngest daughter,“, the journalist also said.
After the first high-level meeting between the US and Russia since the start of the war in Ukraine, Dmitriev said that the Russian Direct Investment Fund expects a certain number of American companies to return to Russia in the second quarter of 2025. According to Dmitriev, who worked at the US Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, US companies have lost $324 billion after leaving the Russian market.
Dmitriev's presence at the meeting with the Americans highlights Moscow's adaptability - Putin sent a businessman in the person of Dmitriev to strike a deal with another businessman in the person of Trump. The American president largely looks at what is happening in Ukraine and Europe not from a political or military point of view, but from a business one. Proof of this is Trump's openly stated desire to receive a share of Ukraine's rare earth metals in exchange for US military aid.
Trump said that the war in Ukraine is much more important for Europe than for the US, because "a great ocean" separates Americans from what is happening on Ukrainian soil. Trump even called Zelensky a dictator who has forced the Biden administration to spend $350 billion on a war that cannot be won.