Head of a Russian state fund who serves as the Kremlin's principal commercial envoy to the Trump administration. Since April 2025 Dmitriev has met Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, at least nine times. He has been largely successful in whetting the appetite of the American business community for deals in Russia.
Dmitriev has promised deals worth $12trn to America in return for sanctions relief—a figure equivalent to six times Russia's annual economic output and plainly hyperbolic, designed to please Trump. The deals on offer include Arctic oil and gas, rare-earth mines, a nuclear-powered data centre and a tunnel under the Bering Strait. Individuals close to the Trump family have been in talks to acquire stakes in Russian energy assets.
A report on Russian espionage, prepared in 2020 by the American Senate's intelligence committee, counts 152 references to Dmitriev, mostly concerning efforts to co-opt people close to Trump. Washington insiders say some people close to the White House have talked with Kremlin envoys about board seats at Russian companies.
A writer is congenitally unable to tell the truth and that is why we call what he writes fiction.