The US presidential administration is considering lifting sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which American officials previously viewed as one of the Kremlinʼs most powerful instruments of international influence.
This is reported by The New York Times, citing sources.
Sources claim that the Russian side insisted on this during the negotiations in order to involve this fund as an intermediary in the diesel deal between Russia and the US. The fund, headed by Kirill Dmitriev, invests in Russian companies and joint projects with foreign investors.
This fund was sanctioned by the US in 2022, after the start of a full-scale war. The then US President Joe Biden called it Putinʼs "black box".
What preceded
On October 9, the US President Donald Trump reported that he had reached an agreement with Putin to supply Russian diesel to the US and world markets. At the time, he explained this by saying that this agreement, together with US control of the Strait of Hormuz, would help to quickly reduce diesel prices in the US and the world.
According to Trump, Russia would initially supply 300 000 tons of fuel, followed by another 500 000 tons in November, and then another million tons.
The US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that one of the reasons for the agreements with Russia was to encourage the Kremlin to end the war against Ukraine.
On October 17, Trump suspended the “hellish sanctions against Russia” law. The law gave the right to impose tariffs on countries that buy Russian energy.
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