US weighs lifting sanctions on Russia's Direct Investment Fund led by Dmitriev

A fund at the center of the sanctions debate

The Trump administration is weighing whether to lift US sanctions on the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a state fund run by Kirill Dmitriev, whom TVP describes as an envoy of Vladimir Putin. The New York Times reported the review on 27 October 2026, framing it as the latest concession to Moscow as Donald Trump pursues economic incentives meant to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. According to the paper, Russian officials pressed for the step as part of wider talks about the fund's role in shipping Russian diesel fuel to the United States. A US official confirmed that the fund's application to have sanctions removed is being assessed through established procedures, and described the aim as improving US-Russia relations and helping end the war. The same official praised Dmitriev as a helpful envoy to American negotiators in talks to end the conflict.

Sanctions history and the fund's record

The United States sanctioned the fund in the first wave of measures after Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, and the European Union followed in 2025. The Biden administration described it as a corruption fund for Putin, symbolic of wider Russian kleptocracy. The fund was meant to attract investment to Russia and finance large economic projects, and it has put billions of dollars into Russian companies, often alongside investors from the Middle East and elsewhere. Lifting the measures would unwind a multi-year US effort to use economic pressure to change Russian behavior, according to the New York Times. The timeline below sets out the sanctions record as reported.

Business deals on the table

Beyond the fund, the New York Times reports that Trump's envoys and Putin have discussed the sale of part of the Russian oil company Lukoil to a well-connected investor group. The same talks reportedly covered an effort to produce natural gas in Alaska, where several executives resigned over concerns about hidden Russian financing. The paper also cites a proposal to increase Russian gas exports to Europe that has stunned European governments. The Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, says Washington and Moscow are discussing a possible return of large American oil companies to the Russian market once the war ends. The ideas include resuming a joint venture off Sakhalin, an island in the Far East, and involving American companies in resumed Russian oil sales to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline. According to the same sources, Witkoff discussed business deals with Putin in St Petersburg in early September, and Kremlin press pool photographs showed him writing 'Business Deals' on his notepad during a later Moscow visit. Two of the people said Moscow sees the deals as incentives for Trump to normalize ties before the war ends.

Reactions and open questions

Yuri Ushakov, a Putin adviser, said after Witkoff's latest visit that the new peace proposal Witkoff brought, along with proposals from Kyiv and Europe, adds little toward ending the war, while both sides have made progress on large-scale economic projects. Critics, including some Republican politicians, argue that Russia could gain economic benefits without real pressure to end its aggression against Ukraine. Eric Green, a former National Security Council official, described the possible move in these terms:

“It would be a clear demonstration that we are softening our earlier position.”

His point was that the sanctions and other costs for Russia were meant to remain in place until an agreement on Ukraine was reached. The US official told the Financial Times that any economic agreements would sit inside a comprehensive peace framework and that nothing has been finalised. ExxonMobil, the only US company in the Sakhalin-1 project, said in 2025 that it was in talks with Russia over compensation for the seizure of its 30% stake but had no plans to resume operations, and it did not respond to a request for comment.