"When relations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin soured this autumn, with the US president publicly accusing Moscow of blocking a path to a peace in Ukraine and announcing significant sanctions against Russia's oil sector, one man saw an opening. Kirill Dmitriev, the US-savvy, Harvard-educated head of Russia's sovereign wealth fund, boarded a plane to Florida late October, where he met Steve Witkoff, the property developer serving as Trump's freelance envoy on Ukraine."
"Dmitriev is obsessed with being perceived as important, said one source, who has known him since the Moscow business scene of the late 2000s. He is ruthlessly ambitious, the source added, describing him as very thin on substance but exceptionally good at selling himself. The source, like others, asked for anonymity so they could speak freely. Fake it till you make it was Dmitriev's modus operandi, the source said. And he has, objectively, made it very far."
Amid worsening relations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin and US sanctions targeting Russia's oil sector, Kirill Dmitriev flew to Florida in late October to meet Steve Witkoff, who acted as Trump's freelance envoy on Ukraine. The two men began drafting a plan imposing draconian terms on Ukraine and granting Moscow sweeping influence over the country's political and military sovereignty. The scheme returned Dmitriev to global prominence. Sources describe Dmitriev as US-savvy, Harvard-educated, ruthlessly ambitious, obsessed with being perceived as important, and skilled at self-promotion despite being thin on substantive expertise. Dmitriev was born in Soviet-era Ukraine and studied at Kyiv's elite Lyceum No 145.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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