They can play a key function in the negotiations on ending the war in Ukraine. Both have ties in the mediate East

With the start of Trump's second term, Witkoff abruptly became 1 of the most crucial diplomats in the world. As a peculiar envoy of the U.S. president to the mediate East played a key function in signing an agreement between Israel and Hamas on the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in January 2025 Trump then entrusted him with the task of making contact with Russia in order to end Russia's war in Ukraine for almost 3 years.

On February 11, Witkoff flew to Moscow on a private business jet to choice up Marc Fogel, an American teacher, sentenced to 14 years in a Russian prison for possession of 17 grams of medical marijuana. In return, the United States released Alexander Winnik, co-founder of the BTC cryptocurrency exchange, who confessed to money laundering.

During his brief visit, Witkoff managed to contact 1 of the Russian authorities. erstwhile asked by journalists on his return, he said: "There is simply a gentleman in Russia, his name is Kirill, he had much to do with it. He was a very crucial mediator who built bridges between both sides.

Links in the mediate East

This is most likely about Kiryl Dmitriev, Director-General of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). He is simply a postgraduate of Stanford and Harvard, in his youth he worked at McKinsey and Goldman Sachs, and in 2007-2011 he managed Icon Private Equity, a Ukrainian investment fund with about a billion dollars (about 4 billion zlotys) — mostly the money of Viktor Pinczuk, the son-in-law of erstwhile Ukrainian president Leonid Kuczma. Pinczuk recommended Kiryl Dmitriev Vladimir Dmitriev, head of state VEB corp (they are not related). In 2011, both men persuaded then president Dmitri Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to make a state investment fund — and Kirilla Dmitriev became his boss.

The most celebrated task that RDIF invested in was COVID-19 vaccine, Sputnik V.

Dmitriev is closely related to Putin's family. His wife Natalia Popowa is simply a classmate and friend of the youngest daughter of the president, Katerina Tichonova, and since 2012 she has been her replacement at the Innopraktika Foundation. Dmitriev himself sat on the board of Sibur Holding for respective years with Tichonova's then husband Kirill Shamalov.

Dmitriev has extended contacts in the mediate East. RDIF's largest partners include sovereign wealth funds from Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United arabian Emirates. Heads of State and Government and their relatives sit on the boards and boards of directors of these funds — all of them are constant interlocutors of Dmitriev.

In 2017, shortly before the first inauguration of Donald Trump, Dmitriev met in Seychelles with any officials from the United arabian Emirates and a group of American businessmen, including Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater PMC and brother of Betsy DeVos, whom Trump shortly later appointed as Secretary of Education. peculiar Prosecutor Robert Mueller, who investigated Russian interference in U.S. elections, later suspected that This was 1 of the meetings aimed at establishing informal ties between the Russian authorities and the Trump administration.

Shortly after Trump's first inauguration, Dmitriev met at the Davos economical Forum with Anthony Scaramucci, an advisor to the American President.

Participation of mediate East States in mediation

Since the start of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine, the mediate East countries have regularly undertaken public and private peace initiatives. Saudi Arabia mediated in the release of foreigners who fought on the side of Ukraine and were captured by Russia. An global conference on the peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine was held there in 2023, but Russia did not participate. In December 2023 Putin went to the United arabian Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

In 2024. Qatar tried to play the function of mediator between Russia and Ukraine in a private case: the integrity of Russian oil infrastructure in exchange for the integrity of Ukrainian energy infrastructure. In the end, the agreement failed.

JIM WATSON / Pool / AFP / AFP

U.S. president Donald Trump and US peculiar Envoy to the mediate East Steve Witkoff at the White home Oval Office, 3 February 2025.

In August 2024, Kiryl Dmitriev participated in negotiations on the exchange of Marc Fogel to Alexander Winnik. Mohammed bin Salman, heir to the throne, prime minister and actual ruler of Saudi Arabia was besides active in the negotiations.

Steve Witkoff besides has extended ties in the mediate East — and, above all, state wealth funds. For example, between 2013 and 2023 he owned the Park Lane Hotel in Manhattan along with an Emirati fund and then sold it to the Qatari fund. In 2018, during Trump's first term, lobbyists hired by Qatar arranged meetings between Qatari officials and 250 people "capable of influencing Trump’, including Witkoff (then not yet a diplomat but a businessman). In 2024 Witkoff besides participated in the Qatari economical Forum.

12 February 2025, after telephone conversations with Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenski, Trump told reporters he was going to meet the Russian president, most likely in Saudi Arabia.

A friend of Dmitriev emphasizes that it is incorrect to call him a negotiator — his function is simply to aid make contact. Since Trump's first term, he has been in contact with Jared Kushner (taken by the U.S. president and erstwhile advisor for mediate East affairs). According to Dmitriev's friend, it was through Kushner Witkoff that he made contact with Dmitriev and then through him with “other people” who organized both Fogel's exchange of Vinnik and Trump's telephone conversation with Putin.