Russia is trying to use the visit of Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), to the United States to spread Kremlin narratives in the US information space. This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), reports UNN.
Details
Analysts point out that Dmitriev gave interviews to CNN, Fox News, and American journalist Lara Logan, and remind that his visit comes against the backdrop of recent US sanctions against Russian oil giants, reports that the US has allowed Kyiv to launch long-range strikes on Russian territory, and ongoing debates about providing American Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine.
The Kremlin's dispatch of Dmitriev to conduct a press tour to the United States indicates that Russia is concerned about the impact of such US policies. Kremlin officials have in recent weeks tried to downplay the impact of Western sanctions on the Russian economy and the consequences of Ukrainian long-range strikes on the battlefield – these are narratives that Dmitriev repeated in his interviews.
They assess that Dmitriev effectively admitted that Ukraine made compromises in its negotiating position, while confirming that Russia's maximalist demands remain unchanged. At the same time, in his opinion, Ukraine changed its negotiating position and offered compromises by agreeing to a ceasefire along the current line.
Dmitriev's statement that Russia wants a "final solution" to the war to prevent its resumption is similar to the wording that Kremlin officials have used when talking about Russia's demand that any peace settlement take into account the alleged "root causes" of the war.
They conclude that the Kremlin uses the "root causes" narrative to demand the replacement of the current Ukrainian government with a Russian puppet government, Ukraine's commitment to neutrality, and the abolition of NATO's open-door policy.
"The statements of Dmitriev and other Kremlin officials refer to long-standing Russian demands to NATO and Ukraine, dating back to December 2021 and February 2022," ISW summarizes.
Recall
Putin's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev believes that Russia, the US, and Ukraine are close to a diplomatic resolution of the war. He noted that the meeting between Trump and Putin has not been canceled and will take place later.