The Kremlin‘s special envoy, tasked with smoothing economic quarrels with the White House, has maintained that peace is on the horizon in Ukraine despite a disastrous tour of the United States.
Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s special presidential representative for investment and economic cooperation, Kirill Dmitriev, was asked at an investment conference in Saudi Arabia whether there would be peace in Ukraine within a year.
“I believe so,” Dmitriev responded. “We are sure that we are on the road to peace, and as peacemakers, we need to make it happen.”
Dmitriev tried to encourage global powers not to focus on the headline-dominating war in Ukraine, urging countries like the U.S. and Saudi Arabia to cooperate more with Russia.
“People are right now focused on the regional conflict that exists around Russia, but we do not want it to escalate into a bigger conflict,” he said. “And for that we have to do better than we have been doing, not worse.”
It’s a characteristically flaccid statement from the envoy, who seems to be struggling to keep discussions of the conflict optimistic.
Last week, Dmitriev flew to Washington, D.C., and launched a charm campaign in the U.S., holding meetings with White House officials and appearing for interviews with American media.
During the visit, he asserted that Russia and the U.S. are “quite close” to reaching a peace deal and said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky‘s support for a plan to freeze the conflict along battle lines is “a good compromise.”
“It’s a big move by President Zelenskyy to already acknowledge that it’s about battle lines,” Dmitriev told CNN on Friday.
“You know, his previous position was that Russia should leave completely,” he continued. “So actually, I think we are reasonably close to a diplomatic solution that can be worked out.”
That characterization seems to run directly counter to Kremlin officials’ rhetoric. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said just this week that Russia will actually require additional territory surrounding Donbas.
“I think, inappropriate when people say, when are you going to end the war? Where are you going to stop? Zaporozhye, are you going to give it back? Actually, we now have taken some other territories which do not belong to the regions reflected now in our Constitution,” Lavrov said, according to Russian state-affiliated news outlet TASS. “The reason is very simple. We need a buffer zone.”
If Dmitriev’s goal was to endear himself to the Trump administration and convince it, for the umpteenth time, that Russia is sincerely interested in peace, that seems to have failed.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was particularly unimpressed by Dmitiev, calling him a “Russian propagandist” during a Sunday television interview.
In particular, Bessent took issue with Dmitriev’s insistence that President Donald Trump’s latest round of sanctions on Russian oil will not negatively impact the nation’s economy.
“I mean, what else is he going to say? That, ‘Oh, it’s going to be terrible, and it’s going to bring Putin to the table’?” Bessent said.
“The Russian economy is a wartime economy. Growth is virtually zero. Inflation, I believe, is over 20% and everything we do is going to bring Putin to the table,” Bessent continued. “It’s oil that funds the Russian war machine, and I think we can make a substantial dent in his profits.”
Dmitriev is also the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, a branch of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.
Putin announced Sunday that his military successfully tested a high-power nuclear-torpedo, known as the Poseidon, capable of destroying coastline cities and reportedly “invincible” to air defenses.