Putin’s Man From Stanford

Negotiations between the U.S. and Russia on the terms of ending the war in Ukraine have begun in Saudi Arabia. One of the main figures on the Russian side is Kirill Dmitriev, a Stanford graduate, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), and a person close to Vladimir Putin. Bloomberg has named him, along with Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Naryshkin, as part of the team of “heavyweights” in the negotiations. Dmitriev arrived in Saudi Arabia with Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

IStories has gathered the main points about Dmitriev.

Kyiv native at Stanford and Harvard

Kirill Dmitriev was born in 1975 in Kyiv, Ukraine. He studied at a physics and mathematics school and wanted to continue his education in the U.S. In the early 1990s, he met an American family who had come to Kyiv through a “citizen diplomacy” program. They told him what a foreign applicant needed in the U.S. First, Dmitriev studied for two years at Foothill College in California, and then entered Stanford University. “I had no relatives there, I was one of the few foreign students who received a full scholarship for the entire duration of their studies,” he said.

After graduating from Stanford with honors, Dmitriev worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, then received an MBA from Harvard Business School.

In 2000, he moved to Russia, taking the position of Deputy General Director at IBS. Two years later, Dmitriev became Investment Director at Delta Private Equity, a division of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund, which was created under Bill Clinton. The fund was later transformed into the U.S. Russia Foundation. In 2015, Russian authorities designated it an “undesirable organization.” Dmitriev worked at Delta Private Equity until 2007, overseeing several major deals, including the sale of the TV-3 television channel to the Profmedia holding for $530 million.

In 2007, he returned to Ukraine, heading the Icon Private Equity fund with a capital of about $1 billion. The fund was owned by Viktor Pinchuk, the son-in-law of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Returning to Russia several years later, Dmitriev spoke about Ukraine: “There were so-called democratic changes as a result of the Orange Revolution, which led to a three- to fourfold increase in corruption, to a wild battle between these democratic clans, which were only united at the beginning of the struggle, and after coming to power, began to devour others and each other, and as a result, they lost. Accordingly, the democratic idea in Ukraine has been largely discredited precisely because of the Orange Revolution.”

Fixer close to Putin

An important event in Dmitriev’s life was meeting and then marrying Natalya Popova. She is a friend of Katerina Tikhonova, Vladimir Putin’s younger daughter. They studied together at Moscow State University. Popova is now Tikhonova’s deputy at the Innopraktika Foundation. According to Popova, Putin’s daughter “called her into service.” Dmitriev is on the board of trustees of Innopraktika. It was Popova’s friendship with Tikhonova that made Dmitriev a “powerful figure in the Kremlin,” the Financial Times wrote.

Through Popova, Dmitriev met not only Tikhonova, but also her ex-husband Kirill Shamalov, who is the son of Putin’s friend Nikolai Shamalov. As IStories found out, in 2012, Popova and Dmitriev were guests of the bride at Tikhonova and Shamalov’s wedding. Judging by the correspondence between Dmitriev and Shamalov, the couples were on friendly terms. For example, Dmitriev wrote: “How are you? Maybe some light sports today – like swimming?”

The men discussed more than just sports. In December 2012, Dmitriev, who by then had already headed the RDIF, passed confidential information to Shamalov about the RDIF’s plans to acquire a stake in Rostelecom. Information about this only began to appear in the media in August 2013, and the deal was closed in October. From July to October, Rostelecom’s shares rose by 30%.

In 2015, the RDIF, along with other investors, provided $3.3 billion in investment for Sibur’s ZapSibNeftekhim project, the largest petrochemical complex in Russia. At that time, Shamalov owned about 21% of Sibur, later selling most of his stake (17%).

In 2018, Tikhonova and Shamalov divorced. The new chosen one of Putin’s daughter was dancer Igor Zelensky. Tikhonova and her daughter flew to Zelensky in Munich on a business jet owned by the RDIF, IStories revealed.

In 2013, The Insider called Dmitriev one of the people who have “access to the body” of Vladimir Putin and “the brightest figure on the lobbying front.” “Through Kirill Alexandrovich, almost any problem can be solved. <...> But it is very difficult to get an appointment with him, you have to pull his wife or acquaintances,” says a source from the publication.

More than ten years ago, Tikhonova and Kirill Shamalov introduced Dmitriev to Sergei Ivanov, then head of the presidential administration, who took the official under his wing. “Kirill likes to put on a show with calls from high-ranking officials. Imagine, there is a tense discussion of a major deal. Suddenly, Sergei Borisovich Ivanov or [current head of the presidential administration] Anton Eduardovich Vaino call, as if unexpectedly: ‘How are the negotiations going?’ He immediately turned on the speakerphone and stood at attention. After the call, the stunned partners did not ask unnecessary questions and agreed to almost everything,” says an acquaintance of Dmitriev.

State investor and zealot

In 2011, after returning to Russia from Ukraine, Dmitriev became CEO of the RDIF and has headed the fund ever since. The idea to create a sovereign investment fund belonged to an advisor of Elvira Nabiullina, who then headed the Ministry of Economic Development, Meduza wrote. Nabiullina supported the project, and it was decided to promote it through VEB.RF.

Then-head of VEB Vladimir Dmitriev (no relation to Kirill) wanted to put his own person in charge of the RDIF, but after a joint trip with “Dmitriev Jr.” to the Davos forum, he changed his mind. “I saw that he was communicative, with excellent English, had extensive connections and was professionally versed in the investment business,” the former head of VEB recalled. 

A good recommendation for Kirill Dmitriev was also given by Viktor Pinchuk, the very same son-in-law of Leonid Kuchma, whose fund the investor managed in Ukraine. The RDIF presentation was successful; the main role was played by Vladimir Putin’s meeting with leading global investors. “People managing a total of $1 trillion were brought to visit Putin,” Meduza wrote. In 2016, due to sanctions imposed on VEB, the RDIF left its structure, and the state became the sole shareholder of the fund.

The RDIF’s task is to attract foreign investment into the Russian economy. To do this, the fund itself invests money as a co-investor in projects and companies that seem promising. Dmitriev regularly reports on the RDIF’s successes; he last did so a month ago. At a meeting with Putin, the official boasted that during its existence, the RDIF, together with its partners, had invested 2.3 trillion rubles, and had increased the invested state money by 5.7 times. But how effective the RDIF is in reality is difficult to determine.

The main project for Dmitriev and the RDIF is the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, primarily its distribution around the world. “Kirill feels like a messiah, for him the distribution of the vaccine around the world is an absolutely evangelical, zealous task,” a former employee of the fund said. Dmitriev was one of the first to try Sputnik on himself, called the vaccine the safest and most effective, and exposed an “information campaign” against Sputnik, accusing “big pharma” and “anti-Russian political circles.”

Liaison to Trump

Dmitriev is one of the figures in the report by the U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election won by Donald Trump. Mueller found that in January 2017, shortly before Trump’s inauguration, Dmitriev met with Erik Prince, a Trump donor and founder of the Blackwater PMC, in the Seychelles Islands. The purpose of the meeting was to establish a link between Trump’s team and Moscow.

Also in January 2017, Dmitriev met with Trump advisor Anthony Scaramucci at the Davos forum. Several months later, CNN wrote that the meeting was being investigated by the U.S. Senate, but withdrew the story the next day because it did not meet editorial standards. Three of the network’s employees resigned.

Following Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, Dmitriev is once again involved in U.S.-Russian diplomacy. According to Reuters, he was involved in the exchange of former U.S. diplomat and teacher Marc Fogel for Russian Alexander Vinnik, who was convicted in the U.S. of money laundering. “There is a gentleman in Russia, his name is Kirill, he played a big role in this. He became an important mediator connecting the two sides,” Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steven Witkoff said.

Dmitriev’s inclusion in the Ukraine negotiating team suggests that Russia is acting pragmatically and wants someone who can talk to Donald Trump on substance, according to Emily Ferris of the UK’s Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).