Trump may lift sanctions on Putin's "secret fund," which the U.S. has long considered one of the Kremlin's most powerful tools for international influence. Now the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), headed by the Russian President's special representative Kirill Dmitriev, may withdraw from the US sanctions imposed during the Joe Biden administration, the New York Times reports, citing anonymous sources. An American official confirmed that the Donald Trump administration is considering the RDIF request to remove the sanctions within the framework of the established procedures in order to "improve US-Russian relations and help end the war." He also called Kirill Dmitriev a "useful emissary" in the discussions on the resolution of the conflict. It should be noted that the removal of sanctions from the multibillion-dollar fund will be a significant weakening of many years of American efforts to exert economic pressure on the Russian Federation. RDIF has invested billions of dollars in Russian companies, often along with investors from the Middle East and other regions, expanding Russia's global influence. The Biden administration confirmed this days after the Russian military's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, calling it Putin's "secret fund" that "is a symbol of the broader Russian kleptocracy." Eric Green, who oversaw Russia policy at the White House National Security Council at the time, said sanctioning the fund was a priority because its access to the Western financial system helped finance Russia's war and because of its "connections to projects closely associated with Putin." The fund is now playing a leading role in Trump's diesel deal, helping arrange the first shipments of Russian diesel to the US since Trump suspended sanctions on Russia on October 9.

Trump may lift sanctions on Putin's "secret fund," which the U.S. has long considered one of the Kremlin's most powerful tools for international influence. Now the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), headed by the Russian President's special representative Kirill Dmitriev, may withdraw from the US sanctions imposed during the Joe Biden administration, the New York Times reports, citing anonymous sources. An American official confirmed that the Donald Trump administration is considering the RDIF request to remove the sanctions within the framework of the established procedures in order to "improve US-Russian relations and help end the war." He also called Kirill Dmitriev a "useful emissary" in the discussions on the resolution of the conflict. It should be noted that the removal of sanctions from the multibillion-dollar fund will be a significant weakening of many years of American efforts to exert economic pressure on the Russian Federation. RDIF has invested billions of dollars in Russian companies, often along with investors from the Middle East and other regions, expanding Russia's global influence. The Biden administration confirmed this days after the Russian military's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, calling it Putin's "secret fund" that "is a symbol of the broader Russian kleptocracy." Eric Green, who oversaw Russia policy at the White House National Security Council at the time, said sanctioning the fund was a priority because its access to the Western financial system helped finance Russia's war and because of its "connections to projects closely associated with Putin." The fund is now playing a leading role in Trump's diesel deal, helping arrange the first shipments of Russian diesel to the US since Trump suspended sanctions on Russia on October 9.