Kirill Alexandrovich Dmitriev (
Russian: Кирилл Александрович Дмитриев; born 12 April 1975)[1] is the CEO of the
Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a $10 billion
sovereign wealth fund created by the
Russian government to
co-invest in the
Russian economy.[2] His wife Natalia Popova, a deputy director of the NGO Innopraktika Foundation, works for and is a very close friend of
Putin's younger daughter
Katerina Tikhonova.[3] In February 2022, both Kirill Dmitriev and RDIF were sanctioned by the United States Treasury, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4][5] Under Mr. Dmitriev's leadership
RDIF claims to be the first state owned Russian company to call for diplomatic solution and peace in Ukraine.[6]
Early life
Kirill Dmitriev was born in 1975 in
Kiev,
Ukrainian SSR,
Soviet Union. Kirill Dmitriev was one of the first Russian exchange students from Ukraine who came to a host family in New Hampshire in 1989. When Dmitriev was 14, he was sent to live with friends of his parents in
California, where the host family and Dmitriev convinced administrators at
Foothill College to enroll him.[7] In two years, he transferred to
Stanford University, from which he holds a BA in
economics with honors and distinction.[8] He continued his education at
Harvard Business School, where he completed the
MBA program as a Baker scholar.[1]
Under his leadership, RDIF has successfully invested with foreign partners in more than 90 projects totaling more than 2.1 trillion rubles and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 15 countries including
Saudi Arabia,
UAE,
China,
Qatar,
Kuwait, Bahrain,
South Korea,
Japan, Vietnam,
Italy, France.[2] Foreign partners have included
BlackRock,
One Equity Partners,
Goldman Sachs, and
Deutsche Bank.[1]
Fighting COVID-19
In 2020 Kirill Dmitriev focused RDIF on combatting the novel coronavirus infection through investing in most promising solutions in testing, drugs, vaccines:
In March, 2020 RDIF invested in the production of unique Russian-Japanese testing system to detect COVID-19 within 30 mins[14] (produced under
EMG brand). More than 13 million testing kits were sold by RDIF and its partners abroad.[15] The system is being used in all major airports of Moscow: Sheremetyevo,[16] Domodedovo[17] and Vnukovo.[18]
In March, 2020 RDIF and Russian pharmaceutical company ChemRar Group agreed to create a JV aimed at the production of Favipiravir-based drug Avifavir (generic version of the Japanese drug Avigan, which was proven to be effective by the Phase 3 clinical trials of Fujifilm Toyama Chemical 5 months after RDIF and ChemRar registered Avifavir in Russia.[19] Avifavir was the first anti-COVID-19 drug officially registered in Russia.[20] It has been exported to more than 15 countries worldwide.[21]
RDIF invested in the production in Russia and abroad of the
Sputnik V vaccine, which became the first registered anti-COVID-19 vaccine in the world.[22] The vaccine is based on the proven and safe platform of human adenoviral vectors.[23]
Dmitriev has been critical of the British COVID-19 vaccine research efforts, repeatedly referring to the
Oxford-
AstraZeneca vaccine as the "monkey vaccine", as the studies involved a modified version of the virus that infected
chimpanzees. Dmitriev stopped this after The Times accused him of acting as part of a co-ordinated
disinformation campaign against the British research efforts.[24]
Kirill Dmitriev was Chairman of the B20s Investments and Infrastructure Taskforce during the year of the Russian presidency in
G20. In November 2012 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Investment Council under the Chairman of the
State Duma.[citation needed] Serves as the Russian representative in the
APEC Business Advisory Council[31] and in the
BRICS Business Council.[32]
In January 2017, Dmitriev met with
Erik Prince, the founder of the
private military companyBlackwater,
George Nader and the UAE Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (known as "MBZ") in the
Seychelles.[35] The meeting was convened by the
UAE. Prince was understood by the other participants to represent the presidential transition team of
Donald Trump, while Dmitriev was understood to represent the Russian government.[36] Prior to the meeting Nader had briefed Prince on Dmitriev and at the meeting Nader introduced Prince to Dmitriev as the person "designated by
Steve [Bannon] to meet you! I know him and he is very very well connected and trusted by the New Team."[37][38][39][a][b]
In February 2019, Kirill Dmitriev was one of the first Russian executives and businessmen to personally speak in defence of the detained founder and head of the
Baring Vostok Capital PartnersMichael Calvey and other detained employees of the investment fund.[51] Dmitriev appealed to Moscow City Court, Moscow's Basmanny district court, and the Russian Investigative Committee, requesting to put detained Michael Calvey and other Baring Vostok employees to house arrest.[52] Later on a court in Moscow released Calvey from pretrial detention and put him to house arrest.[53]
Dmitriev is married to Natalia Valerievna Popova (
Russian: Наталья Валерьевна Попова).[3][61] Popova is a deputy on the board of the NGO Innopraktika Foundation (
Russian: «Иннопрактика»).[62] Her close friend,
Katerina Tikhonova, is the director of the Innopraktika Fund which was created “for an effective and flexible solution to the problems of the country's innovative development” (
Russian: «для эффективного и гибкого решения задач инновационного развития страны»).[3][62]
The couples Shamalov-Tikhonova and Dmitriev-Popova were very close and went on holiday trips together before the divorce of Shamalov and Tikhonova which was announced in early 2018.[3]
Notes
^In November 2017, Prince stated to the House Intelligence Committee that "I didn't fly there to meet any Russian guy," and repeatedly denied both that he neither had represented Trump or the transition team nor was acting as any back-channel between the transition team, the White House or Trump to the Kremlin or Putin.[40][41][42][43] In 2018, both the Washington Post and ABC News reported that Prince's testimony was inaccurate.[44][37] On April 30, 2019,
House Intelligence Committee chairman
Adam Schiff stated that he would send a
criminal referral to the Justice Department alleging Prince had provided false testimony to the committee.[45][46]United States Assistant Attorney GeneralStephen Boyd confirmed on February 4, 2020, that the Department of Justice was opening an investigation into Prince.[47][48]
^"U.S. Policy Towards Russia". U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. 21 June 2005. pp. 3–12.
ISBN9781422334287. Retrieved 27 October 2016. One of my partners, Kirill Dmitriev, from Ukraine, was honors graduate of Stanford University, Baker Scholar at Harvard. He worked for Goldman Sachs, in investment banking, and for McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles, Moscow and Prague. He has been with us for 4 years, and he is a valued partner.
^Boyd, Stephen Elliott (4 February 2020).
"Dear Chairman Schiff". Letter to Adam Schiff. Archived from
the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
^"Иннопрактика Правление Фонда" [Innopraktika Foundation Board] (PDF). «Иннопрактика» website (in Russian). 2013. p. 3. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.