Her last envoy Russia offers the prospect of profitable business agreements to Ilon Musk and Donald Trumpplaying … game on many levels.

THE Kirill dmitriev He began his moves this week, publishing on the X platform for the first time after more than a decade, stating that US-Russia collaboration was “key to tackling world challenges”. Then came a graphic video depicting a joint mission to the planet Mars with the US and Saudi Arabia, with one of the Musk missiles.

The focus on the big dream of Mask to conquer the Red planet It was not accidental for President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for external economic cooperation. Her once investment banker Goldman Sachs Group Inc. It has a crucial mission: to make the US president and top advisers such as Musk to appreciate the prospects for major business agreements with Russia as a bait for ending the war in Ukraine on Kremlin -favored terms.

The Chimney He saw an opening for such conversations when Trump began to demand access to Ukraine’s fossil resources, the person said, asking not to be named by discussing internal issues.

Russia “is looking for ways to take advantage of what it considers as a” pragmatism “of Trump and if a commercial approach will work with its team businessmen,” said Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist in the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin. Dmitryev “fits into this idea as an investor and a facilitator who knows people from Trump’s environment for a long time.”

THE Putin He strengthened this strategy when he offered to work with the “American partners” to mining Russia’s rare earthworms. Russia has “more resources of this kind from Ukraine,” the Russian president said.

It was also offered to sell about 2 million tonnes of aluminum in the US if Trump lifted the limitations to imports and suggested Russian companies to create a joint venture with US counterparts to produce aluminum in Siberia.

The US and Russia are also considering joint projects in the Arctic and other areas, Dmitryv told reporters in Riyadh, according to Interfax. “Common projects will allow us to have more success,” he said.

Russian and US companies are interested in cooperation, but “there has not yet been a real discussion on this issue,” Kremlin spokesman said on Thursday. Dmitry Peskovaccording to the Interfax News Agency. “There is a declared US position – first a settlement and then the economy. Everything must be resolved gradually. “

Russia is now competing with the agreement the Ukraine with the US for a common development of its natural resources. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski is expected to travel to Washington to sign the deal with Trump on Friday, offering a critical opportunity for direct talks before a possible summit between US leaders and Russia.

“I would like to buy minerals on Russian land,” which has “very good” stocks of rare land, Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday. “Look, it’s great if we get arranged – it’s great for Russia, because we can make agreements there, they have valuable land that is not used.”

Certainly, there are many obstacles to the involvement of US businesses in Russia, even if the conflict is ended. Many western multinationals tried to leave Russia when the war broke out, interrupting decades of involvement in the market, while the Kremlin imposed harsh cuts on the selling values ​​of companies and occupied the local subsidiaries of those who were trying to leave.

Putin’s strategy against Trump reflects his training as an agent in the Soviet KGB, who used similar “mirroring” techniques to gain the confidence of recruitment objectives, according to Maria Snegovaya, a superior programmer of the program. EuropeRussia and Eurasia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

Even before the US presidency’s swearing -in last month, Putin “used phrases from Trump’s own rhetoric – for example, that the 2020 elections were stolen by Trump and that if Trump was in power, the war in Ukraine would not have begun.” “Now we clearly see the continuation of the same approach.”