Top Russian envoy visits US for ‘official’ talks, days after Trump imposes sanctions on Moscow
By Matthew Chance, CNN’s Chief Global Affairs Correspondent
Moscow (CNN) — Russia’s top economic envoy has arrived in the United States for “official” talks just days after President Donald Trump announced tough new sanctions on Russia, sources with knowledge of the visit exclusively told CNN on Friday.
Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund (RDIF) and a Kremlin special envoy, is expected to meet Trump administration officials “to continue discussions about the US-Russia relationship,” according to the sources. A White House official told CNN that Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff is expected to meet with Dmitriev in Miami, Florida, on Saturday.
In a post on X later Friday, Dmitriev said that his visit was “planned a while ago based on an invitation from the US side.” Dialogue between his country and the US is “vital for the world and must continue with the full understanding of Russia’s position and respect for its national interests,” he added.
The visit comes amid growing US frustration over the Kremlin’s refusal to end its war in Ukraine and after Trump said he had “canceled” a planned summit with his Kremlin counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil as it called on Moscow to agree to an immediate ceasefire in the war with Ukraine.
Putin said the sanctions will have little impact on the Russian economy, describing them as an attempt to put pressure on Moscow.
“No self-respecting country ever does anything under pressure,” he said on Thursday.
The Russian leader said that, in a conversation with Trump, he had warned that the sanctions would impact global oil prices, including in the US.
Dmitriev – who has been a prominent Kremlin advocate for closer economic cooperation between Russia and the United States – recently proposed the construction of a “Trump-Putin” tunnel between Alaska and the Russian Far East.
Born in Soviet-era Ukraine and educated at Harvard and Stanford in the US, Dmitriev worked as a consultant at American consultancy firm McKinsey and as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs.
After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Dmitriev was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department, which designated him a “close associate of Putin” and his family.
In April, Dmitriev became the first Russian official to visit Washington, DC, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At the time, his visit – during which he met with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff – was viewed as an important step in the then-warming relations between the Kremlin and the White House.
The US government temporarily lifted sanctions against Dmitriev to allow the State Department to grant him a visa to come to the US, a source told CNN in April.
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CNN’s Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.
