The Ukrainian banker Putin sent to reach an agreement with Trump

MoscowVladimir Putin quickly understood that to deal with Donald Trump, he needed someone who spoke the language of his interlocutors, dollars, like no one else. And he chose the best interpreter, Kiril Dmitriev. This 49-year-old Ukrainian banker stood out amidst the dullness and rigidity of diplomatic protocol at the historic meeting. the thaw between the United States and Russia, on February 18 in Saudi Arabia, but little by little it has become clear what his role is in Moscow's negotiating strategy, to the point of becoming the The first official Kremlin emissary to travel to Washington since the start of the war in Ukraine.

Dmitriev has also always been out of place within the Kremlin establishment, which is largely made up of Chekists. Since 2011, he has been the president of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a sovereign wealth fund with an opaque structure that, rather than focusing on seeking business opportunities abroad, invites international partners to join forces with the Kremlin to invest in Russia.

Educated at the prestigious American universities and business schools of Stanford and Harvard, he previously worked at the consulting firm McKinsey and the investment bank Goldman Sachs. He spent much of the 2000s looking for acquisition opportunities in Russia for a branch of a US government fund, a background that led him many years later to establish ties with Donald Trump's entourage during his first term.

Russia was going through a difficult time internationally following sanctions for its 2014 annexation of Crimea, and Dmitriev's attention turned to the Gulf countries. Here, he became a key figure for Putin, who needed to find new partners. With Trump's arrival at the White House in 2016, the Kremlin's downfall tried to resume business with the United States. These contacts caught the attention of special counsel Robert Mueller when investigated Russian interference in the US elections, but concluded that there was nothing illegal.

After the initial talks in Saudi Arabia, Dmitriev denied that his good relationship with Trump's entourage had been key to arranging the meeting. He has always declared himself a defender of economic relations between Russia and the United States, but since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, both he and the fund he leads have been sanctioned by the US administration and the European Union. Now his goal is to have these sanctions lifted so that both countries can embark on new investment opportunities.

Good relationship with those in power

Discreet and measured on the outside; astute, relentless, and vehement behind closed doors, those who have shared negotiations with him explain that it's common for him to break a deadlock by calling one of his Kremlin contacts and turning on the speakerphone, causing the interlocutors to back down and end up accepting any deal. His intertwined relationship with political power dates back to the end of 2000, when he worked for an investment fund belonging to the son-in-law of then-Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. There, he understood that the success of a business in the post-Soviet space depends on a good relationship with the administration.

It's no surprise, then, that his wife is Natalia Popova, a close friend of Putin's youngest daughter, Ekaterina Tikhonova, with whom he also shares several businesses. Dmitriev has also not hesitated to use his position to enrich himself. According to a report this week by the Anti-Corruption Foundation, the entity headed by Aleksei Navalny, his family has accumulated real estate assets in Russia, France and Dubai worth more than 80 million euros.

His ability to find solutions in times of crisis led him to lead the drive to the Russian COVID vaccine, Sputnik. To prove it was safe, he even injected himself and his parents before the clinical trials were completed. Dmitriev, who didn't want to miss the opportunity to turn medical success into a geopolitical triumph for Russia, even called for the Nobel Prize to be awarded to the scientists who developed the drug.

And Sputnik on Mars. In his rapprochement with the United States, Putin's envoy has sought an alliance with Trump's closest friend of convenience, Elon Musk, with whom he claims they have explored a joint mission to the planet in 2029. Both speak the language of money, the common language Washington and Moscow have chosen to discuss the future of the U.