Dmitriyev arrived in the US for negotiations with Trump’s negotiators. The main topics are US-Russian relations and the ambitious tunnel between Alaska and the Far East.
Special Envoy of the Russian President for Investment Cooperation and Director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriyev arrived in the United States for “official” negotiations. CNN reported about it on Friday. According to sources cited by the station, Dmitriyev will meet with representatives of the administration of President Donald Trump. Journalist of the Axios portal Barak Ravid wrote on the X network that Dmitriyev has a meeting with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff on Saturday, writes TASR.
Dmitriyev is to “continue discussions on US-Russia relations” with government officials, according to unnamed sources cited by CNN.
Strained relationships
The Russian envoy’s visit comes amid growing US dissatisfaction with Russia’s refusal to end its more than three-and-a-half-year war against Ukraine, the CNN website reported. The United States announced new sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies on Wednesday, and Trump canceled a planned summit with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Budapest.
Dmitriev, who is a strong supporter of closer economic cooperation between Russia and the US and the Kremlin’s chief negotiator with the US, recently proposed the construction of a “Trump and Putin” railway tunnel between the Russian Far East and Alaska. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, while negotiating with Trump, said that he is not enthusiastic about this idea.
An ambitious tunnel
The proposal, which the head of the White House described as interesting, envisages the construction of a 112-kilometer rail and freight transport link. The cost of the construction would be eight billion dollars, the financing would be provided by Moscow and “international partners”. They say they could build the tunnel within eight years.
Dmitriyev also visited the United States in April – as the first representative of the Kremlin in the US since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. At that time, he met Trump’s envoy Witkoff in Washington. According to CNN, this visit was considered an important step in the revival of relations between Moscow and Washington at the time.
