Peace talks against the backdrop of the Russian-Ukrainian war are being led by two financial magnates. The American side is represented by special envoy Steve Witkoff, who previously worked as a real estate consultant and investor. Russia is represented by Kirill Dmitriev, director of the state direct investment fund, a magnate with a career at companies such as Goldman Sachs and the US-Russia Investment Fund.
The two men met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos, where they continued talks on US-Russian relations and the specifics of a potential ceasefire agreement. In 2010, the WEFawardedDmitriev the title of "Young Global Leader."
Both sides have made "great progress" in the ceasefire talks, Reuters quoted Witkoff as saying. The American envoy made the statement ahead of talks between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the Davos forum. The day before, the White House chief had said that an agreement was "very close."
"If both sides want to solve this problem, we will solve it," added Trump's longtime golf partner at the WEF. "I think we've made great progress."
On December 1 last year, the investigative portal Byline Times published a report pointing to direct financial links between Witkoff's real estate empire and Dmitriev's former advisor Leonard Blavatnik.
The portal, which claims to be an alternative media outlet, recalled a meeting between American and Russian negotiators at the Faena Hotel in the Florida enclave of Miami Beach on October 25. The outcome of this meeting was a 28-point peace plan that shocked both Ukraine and Europe and was one of the few that at least partially met Russian demands.
Since the beginning of Trump's second term, Witkoff has visited Moscow at least six times, each time raising suspicions that he is "adopting the Kremlin's narrative" or pursuing personal interests at the expense of Ukraine.
His real estate collaboration with Blavatnik, a long-time advisor to Kremlin "finance minister" Dmitriev, is just one of two conflicts of interest that he failed to disclose, according to the Byline Times. The second was the use of funds from "post-Soviet" financial instruments for his development projects in New York and Florida.
The Faena Hotel, where the negotiators met at the end of October, is owned by Blavatnik, a British-American billionaire of Ukrainian origin, whom the Ukrainian government placed on its sanctions list in 2023. He began buying American real estate in 2000, while also privatizing several major aluminum plants that were previously Soviet state property.
Witkoff founded the real estate agency of the same name in 1997 and a year later bought the Woolworth Building skyscraper in Manhattan for $137 million. Blavatnik earned billions of dollars from the sale of the TNK oil company to the British conglomerate BP, which he also reinvested in real estate on the US East Coast through his company Access Industries.
Other New York prominent figures, such as Stephen Schwarzman, head of the investment firm Blackstone, and Leon Black, founder of Apollo Global Management and one of Jeffrey Epstein's two well-known clients, also collaborated with this company and the Russian state fund.
Both Black and Schwarzman were members of the international advisory board of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, but both quietly left their positions after the annexation of Crimea in 2014.
"During this period, Blackstone provided large loans to Jared Kushner's family business and eventually became one of the largest creditors of Kushner Companies, with more than $400 million in financing for at least four deals in New York," explained the Byline Times portal.
Blackstone redirected its investments to the Witkoff Group in 2015. This involved refinancing a Manhattan skyscraper for a staggering $256 million, nearly tripling the ambassador's portfolio in New York.
Witkoff, in collaboration with Blavatnik'sbrotherAlexander, invested in the luxury Belgrove Resort & Spa in West Palm Beach.They receiveda $100 million cash injection from Black's Apollo Global fund.
In addition, prior to the October phone call between Trump and Putin, Witkoff advised the Kremlin chief on how to soften the American by praising him, offering "congratulations" and emphasizing his role as a "man of peace." This is evident from transcripts of conversations between Witkoff and Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov.
However, in some cases, the real estate mogul's contacts went beyond the "legal" sphere. In 2013, the FBI raidedTrump Tower in New York, arresting at least two members of the Russian mafia. They claimed that American contacts had helped them legalize illegal gambling.
Real Deal magazine responded to this news by naming Witkoff, who "more than two years ago submitted a recommendation for Anatoly Golubchik, a later convicted gangster, when he applied for a contract in an apartment building at 971 Madison Street." This is a truly prominent street in the heart of the affluent Upper East Side neighborhood.
Equally suspicious is Dmitriev's connection to Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Kushner served as an advisor on the Middle East in the first administration, and the two men met in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia—their joint business activities continue to this day.
According to Kremlin insider Mikhail Zygar, it was Kushner's contact with Dmitriev that led to the choice of the Saudi capital as the first venue for negotiations between the American and Russian delegations in March 2025.
According to Byline Times, the state fund led by Dmitriev was "one of Jared Kushner's biggest creditors, providing hundreds of millions of dollars for the purchase of luxury real estate in New York." The husband of the president's daughter Ivanka does not hold any official position in the current government, yet he participated in peace talks on Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.
Thus, the ceasefire in Ukraine is being negotiated with the Russians by two Americans who have done millions of dollars in business with the Russians. Blavatnik himself, however, claims that he has only contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin once, before 2000, and that he ended all business activities in Russia in 2022.