April 1st, 2025

Alina Pereverzieva   

🇺🇦 Data Engineer // Power BI, Azure Synapse, SQL

• Matrix42

Kyiv, Kyiv City, Ukraine  Contact info

🇺🇸🇷🇺 Inside Trump’s circle: five key players shaping the US-russia reset

Summary is in the comments.

1️⃣ Jared Kushner (Trump’s son-in-law)

The central figure behind Trump’s backchannels with russia.

▪️ Since 2020, he’s built ties with entities linked to Kirill Dmitriev’s RDIF
▪️ Met in 2023 with Saudi PIF head Yasir al-Rumayyan, a RDIF partner
▪️ Via Affinity Partners (founded 2021), invests in critical infrastructure in Asia and the Caucasus
▪️ In 2024, showed interest in Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan — both key to russia’s sanctions evasion

2️⃣ Steve Witkoff (Trump’s Middle East envoy)

Second most influential in shaping the informal Trump-Kremlin network.

▪️ Pushed for Dmitriev’s inclusion in talks, citing “informal diplomacy”
▪️ Founder of Witkoff Group, with strong real estate links in the Middle East
▪️ Likely helped connect Trump’s circle to Dmitriev through Dubai business
▪️ Moscow Times reported RDIF plans a joint fund with Dubai Holding — where Witkoff may play a key role

3️⃣ Donald Trump Jr.

▪️ Oversaw Trump Tower Moscow project (with Aras Shakazyanov and Felix Sater) until mid-2016 — during the Trump’s campaign
▪️ Key figure in the 2016, 2020, and 2024 campaigns
▪️ Met with russian lawyer Veselnitskaya in 2016 to seek dirt on Clinton — later investigated by the Senate
▪️ In 2025, reportedly joined Kushner and Tucker Carlson in unofficial talks with Ukrainian opposition to push early elections — seen as a pro-Moscow move

4️⃣ JD Vance (Vice President)

▪️ Leads Trump’s Ukraine policy: end aid to Kyiv, create a “demilitarized zone,” block NATO membership
▪️ Says Ukraine should cede territory for peace — echoing Kremlin lines
▪️ Has close ties with Trump Jr. and joins informal strategy meetings

5️⃣ Erik Prince (Blackwater founder)

▪️ In 2017, met with Dmitriev and a UAE rep in Seychelles to explore a Trump-Kremlin backchannel
▪️ Deepened russian ties, including links to Wagner in 2020 and a 2024 visit to russia to discuss African mine security.

💡 Russian representatives:

• Putin’s advisor Yuri Ushakov
• Andrey Kostin (head of VTB Bank)
• Kirill Dmitriev (CEO of the russian Direct Investment Fund, RDIF) — a close Putin ally.

Dmitriev’s wife has personal ties to Putin’s family. He also tried to establish contact with the Trump administration through Rick Gerson, a friend of Jared Kushner.

…………….

Prepared by Conflict Capital:

https://drukarnia.com.ua/articles/kuluarna-komanda-trampa-ta-yikh-plani-po-vidnovlennyu-komerciinikh-zv-yazkiv-z-rosiyeyu-DllJE

Summary ⤵️

In 2025, an unofficial network between Trump’s team and the Kremlin becomes more formal.

It’s based not just on politics, but on personal, financial, and business ties — linking people like Kushner, Witkoff, Dmitriev, Prince, Ushakov, and Kostin.

Together, they run a parallel diplomacy that could shape U.S.-russia relations and Ukraine’s future.

Ukraine has few options, since even top U.S. officials don’t control these talks. What we can do:

▪️ expose the links and backroom deals
▪️ inform European partners
▪️ delay Ukraine–USA–russia talks that work against us
▪️ build ties with the EU and Turkey
▪️ gather evidence of Trump’s team’s conflicts of interest

…………………..

Comment from :

Sverker Månsson • CEO & Founder at Mindtemp

And the American congress is just quite, it’s like they don’t care about democracy anymore. Or what I’m missing?

Reply from Alina:

With Trump in the White House and GOP holding the House, don’t expect Congress to push back. Too few Republicans are willing to challenge him.
My question is why the democrats have been so silent since Jan 2025.

Joe Alexander 

Exactly what is being reset? Asking for the family that was killed yesterday in Ukraine? Your propaganda is lethal.

Alina replies :

What propaganda? The piece exposes business connections between Trump’s friends/relatives and Russian companies, and partially explains why Trump has been so soft on Putin.

Joe Alexander 

It comes across as supportive of Trump. You gave no opinion. It left me ashamed and angry. And it should you, too. Kushner has no qualifications at all to be in any role, let alone this one.

Alina replies:

just to be clear — I’m from Ukraine and definitely not a Trump supporter. The post was about showing the connections behind certain decisions, not endorsing anyone. I get that this topic hits hard, but please don’t project that frustration onto me.