Kirill Dmitriev

Kirill A. Dmitriev
2018
Born (1975-04-12) 12 April 1975 (age 49)
Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
NationalityRussian
EducationB.A. in Economics, Stanford
MBA, Harvard
Alma materStanford University, Harvard Business School
OccupationCEO
EmployerRussian Direct Investment Fund

Kirill Alexandrovich Dmitriev (Russian: Кирилл Александрович Дмитриев; born 12 April 1975)[1] is the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a $10 billion sovereign wealth fund created by the Russian government to co-invest in the Russian economy.[2] His wife Natalia Popova, a deputy director of the NGO Innopraktika Foundation, works for and is a very close friend of Putin's younger daughter Katerina Tikhonova.[3] In February 2022, both Kirill Dmitriev and RDIF were sanctioned by the United States Treasury, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[4][5] Under Mr. Dmitriev's leadership RDIF claims to be the first state owned Russian company to call for diplomatic solution and peace in Ukraine.[6]

Early life

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Kirill Dmitriev was born in 1975 in Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union. Kirill Dmitriev was one of the first Russian exchange students from Ukraine who came to a host family in New Hampshire in 1989. When Dmitriev was 14, he was sent to live with friends of his parents in California, where the host family and Dmitriev convinced administrators at Foothill College to enroll him.[7] In two years, he transferred to Stanford University, from which he holds a BA in economics with honors and distinction.[8] He continued his education at Harvard Business School, where he completed the MBA program as a Baker scholar.[1]

Career

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Dmitriev worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs in New York and a consultant at McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles, Moscow, and Prague,[9] before returning to Russia in 2000. He was an associate at private equity fund Delta Private Equity Partners from 2002 to 2007, while also working for The U.S. Russia Investment Fund.[10] He served as the President of Icon Private Equity from 2007 to 2010.[11]

During his career, Dmitriev worked on the sale of DeltaBank to General Electric,[12] DeltaCredit Bank to Société Générale,[13] CTC Media shares to Fidelity Investments, National Cable Networks to Basic Element, CompuLink to three investment funds, TV3 to Prof-Media, and NTC to Bank Rossiya.[citation needed]

Russian Direct Investment Fund

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In 2011 he was appointed as CEO of a newly created Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), a sovereign wealth fund to make equity co-investments in Russia companies. His mission has been described as "to change the face of Russian capitalism" and make the Russian economy less dependent on the petroleum industry by "overcoming western funds’ reluctance to invest in a country many viewed as corrupt, prone to state meddling and plagued by a law-of-the-jungle legal system".[1]

Under his leadership, RDIF has successfully invested with foreign partners in more than 90 projects totaling more than 2.1 trillion rubles and covering 95% of the regions of the Russian Federation. RDIF has established joint strategic partnerships with leading international co-investors from more than 15 countries including Saudi Arabia, UAE, China, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Italy, France.[2] Foreign partners have included BlackRock, One Equity Partners, Goldman Sachs, and Deutsche Bank.[1]

Fighting COVID-19

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In 2020 Kirill Dmitriev focused RDIF on combatting the novel coronavirus infection through investing in most promising solutions in testing, drugs, vaccines:

  1. In March, 2020 RDIF invested in the production of unique Russian-Japanese testing system to detect COVID-19 within 30 mins[14] (produced under EMG brand). More than 13 million testing kits were sold by RDIF and its partners abroad.[15] The system is being used in all major airports of Moscow: Sheremetyevo,[16] Domodedovo[17] and Vnukovo.[18]
  2. In March, 2020 RDIF and Russian pharmaceutical company ChemRar Group agreed to create a JV aimed at the production of Favipiravir-based drug Avifavir (generic version of the Japanese drug Avigan, which was proven to be effective by the Phase 3 clinical trials of Fujifilm Toyama Chemical 5 months after RDIF and ChemRar registered Avifavir in Russia.[19] Avifavir was the first anti-COVID-19 drug officially registered in Russia.[20] It has been exported to more than 15 countries worldwide.[21]
  3. RDIF invested in the production in Russia and abroad of the Sputnik V vaccine, which became the first registered anti-COVID-19 vaccine in the world.[22] The vaccine is based on the proven and safe platform of human adenoviral vectors.[23]

Dmitriev has been critical of the British COVID-19 vaccine research efforts, repeatedly referring to the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as the "monkey vaccine", as the studies involved a modified version of the virus that infected chimpanzees. Dmitriev stopped this after The Times accused him of acting as part of a co-ordinated disinformation campaign against the British research efforts.[24]

Later on, Dmitriev advocated for the partnership of Gamaleya Institute, RDIF and AstraZeneca to help AstraZeneca increase the efficacy of its vaccine by combining it with one of the components of Sputnik V: on November 23, 2020, RDIF and Gamaleya Institute offered AstraZeneca to collaborate on this via a twitter post.[25] AstraZeneca accepted RDIF's proposal.[26] The partnership between RDIF, Gamaleya Institute and AstraZeneca was created in December 2020.[27] In February 2021, health officials in Azerbaijan granted approval for a clinical trial in the country on combining Russia's Sputnik V vaccine with the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 shot in adults 18 years and older.[28]

Other activities

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The World Economic Forum selected Dmitriev to be a Young Global Leader, and he was elected as a Vice President of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP).[29][30] In 2011 he was the only Russian national to be named one of 100 most influential private equity professionals of the decade by Private Equity International magazine.[11]

Kirill Dmitriev was Chairman of the B20s Investments and Infrastructure Taskforce during the year of the Russian presidency in G20. In November 2012 he was appointed Deputy Chairman of the Investment Council under the Chairman of the State Duma.[citation needed] Serves as the Russian representative in the APEC Business Advisory Council[31] and in the BRICS Business Council.[32]

He serves on the Board of Directors of Rostelecom, MDMG, Gazprombank, the Russian Railways, Transneft, Rosseti, Skolkovo Foundation, and the supervisory board of ALROSA. He is also on the boards of trustees of the Mariinsky Theatre, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Russian Institute of Theatre Arts GITIS[33] and National History Fund. He was Chairman of the Russian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association from 2005 to 2006.[34]

In January 2017, Dmitriev met with Erik Prince, the founder of the private military company Blackwater, George Nader and the UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (known as "MBZ") in the Seychelles.[35] The meeting was convened by the UAE. Prince was understood by the other participants to represent the presidential transition team of Donald Trump, while Dmitriev was understood to represent the Russian government.[36] Prior to the meeting Nader had briefed Prince on Dmitriev and at the meeting Nader introduced Prince to Dmitriev as the person "designated by Steve [Bannon] to meet you! I know him and he is very very well connected and trusted by the New Team."[37][38][39][a][b]

In February 2019, Kirill Dmitriev was one of the first Russian executives and businessmen to personally speak in defence of the detained founder and head of the Baring Vostok Capital Partners Michael Calvey and other detained employees of the investment fund.[51] Dmitriev appealed to Moscow City Court, Moscow's Basmanny district court, and the Russian Investigative Committee, requesting to put detained Michael Calvey and other Baring Vostok employees to house arrest.[52] Later on a court in Moscow released Calvey from pretrial detention and put him to house arrest.[53]

In November 2008, Dmitriev published an essay entitled, "Crisis: five rules for survival", in the leading Russian business daily Vedomosti, the sister paper of the Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal, in which he warned that the financial crisis of 2007–08 crisis would be prolonged.[54]

Awards

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He has been awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky (12 June 2017),[55] the Order of Honour (16 April 2020) by the Russian Federation.[56]

He was awarded the Chevalier of the National Order of the Legion of Honour (19 November 2018) for his great contribution to strengthening cooperation between Russia and France,[57] the King Abdulaziz Second-Class Order of Merit (5 October 2019) for his contribution to strengthening cooperation between the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia,[58] the Commander of the Order of the Star of Italy (14 May 2020) for his special achievements in the development of friendly relations and cooperation between Italy and Russia,[59] and the Order of Friendship of Kazakhstan (20 December 2020) for special merits in the development of friendly relations and cooperation between Kazakhstan and Russia.[60]

Personal life

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Dmitriev is married to Natalia Valerievna Popova (Russian: Наталья Валерьевна Попова).[3][61] Popova is a deputy on the board of the NGO Innopraktika Foundation (Russian: «Иннопрактика»).[62] Her close friend, Katerina Tikhonova, is the director of the Innopraktika Fund which was created “for an effective and flexible solution to the problems of the country's innovative development” (Russian: «для эффективного и гибкого решения задач инновационного развития страны»).[3][62]

The couples Shamalov-Tikhonova and Dmitriev-Popova were very close and went on holiday trips together before the divorce of Shamalov and Tikhonova which was announced in early 2018.[3]

Notes

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  1. ^ In November 2017, Prince stated to the House Intelligence Committee that "I didn't fly there to meet any Russian guy," and repeatedly denied both that he neither had represented Trump or the transition team nor was acting as any back-channel between the transition team, the White House or Trump to the Kremlin or Putin.[40][41][42][43] In 2018, both the Washington Post and ABC News reported that Prince's testimony was inaccurate.[44][37] On April 30, 2019, House Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff stated that he would send a criminal referral to the Justice Department alleging Prince had provided false testimony to the committee.[45][46] United States Assistant Attorney General Stephen Boyd confirmed on February 4, 2020, that the Department of Justice was opening an investigation into Prince.[47][48]
  2. ^ According to Karen Dawisha, Putin and his inner circle only use bearer shares for ownership. As of 2013, the Marshall Islands, Panama, Antigua, and Seychelles provide the greatest anonymity for the transfer of ownership with bearer shares.[49][50]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Anne-Sylvaine Chassany; Henny Sender (21 September 2014). "Russia's sovereign fund head struggles to stay above politics". Financial Times.
  2. ^ a b Michelle Caruso-Cabrera (11 December 2013). "The $10 billion man out to change Russia's image". CNBC.
  3. ^ a b c d Anin, Roman; Marokhovskaya, Alesya; Dolinina, Irina; Velikovsky, Dmitry; Savina, Sonya; Shmagun, Olesya; Shleinov, Roman; Dmitriev, Denis (7 December 2020). "Кирилл и Катя: любовь, разлука, офшоры и неограниченный ресурс" [Kirill and Katya: love, separation, offshore and unlimited resources]. istories.media (in Russian). Archived from the original on 7 December 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  4. ^ "Sanctions on Russian Fund Show Dashed Hope of Moscow's Cooperation with Democracies". Forbes.
  5. ^ "Notice of OFAC Sanctions Actions." Published 3 March 2022. 87 FR 12216
  6. ^ "RUSSIAN DIRECT INVESTMENT FUND CALLS FOR PEACE IN UKRAINE". POLITICO. 21 February 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2022.
  7. ^ "Что известно о главе РФПИ Кирилле Дмитриеве?". 12 May 2020.
  8. ^ "Kirill Dmitriev". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
  9. ^ Cloherty, Patricia (2006). U.S. policy towards Russia: Hearing before the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, first session, June 21, 2005. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 5. ISBN 0160756642.
  10. ^ "U.S. Policy Towards Russia". U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. 21 June 2005. pp. 3–12. ISBN 9781422334287. Retrieved 27 October 2016. One of my partners, Kirill Dmitriev, from Ukraine, was honors graduate of Stanford University, Baker Scholar at Harvard. He worked for Goldman Sachs, in investment banking, and for McKinsey & Company in Los Angeles, Moscow and Prague. He has been with us for 4 years, and he is a valued partner.
  11. ^ a b России есть что демонстрировать. RBC Information Systems (in Russian). 15 March 2012. Archived from the original on 20 March 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  12. ^ Roberts, Dan; Ostrovsky, Arkady (12 August 2004), "GE unit in deal to buy Russian bank", Financial Times, archived from the original on 7 May 2015
  13. ^ "Societe Generale Will Buy Russian Lender", The Wall Street Journal, pp. M4, 15 August 2005
  14. ^ "Saudi, UAE labs and clinics lead bidding for express COVID-19 test". Arab News. 16 March 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  15. ^ Chaudhury, Dipanjan Roy. "Russian sovereign wealth fund in touch with India to share advanced practices on Covid vaccine: CEO". The Economic Times. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  16. ^ Airport, Sheremetyevo International. "RDIF and Sheremetyevo International Airport launch COVID-19 testing for passengers with EMG technology". www.prnewswire.com (Press release). Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  17. ^ "Moscow expands COVID-19 express tests to major airports". Reuters (in French). 5 August 2020. Archived from the original on 10 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  18. ^ "RDIF and Vnukovo International Airport agree to launch express testing of passengers for coronavirus with the EMG system". www.vnukovo.ru. Archived from the original on 9 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  19. ^ "Fujifilm's Avigan shown to be effective in Japanese Phase-3 trial for COVID-19". Reuters. 23 September 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  20. ^ GMPnewsNet (30 May 2020). "Russian Ministry of Health Approves the First COVID-19 Drug Avifavir". GMP news. Archived from the original on 11 October 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  21. ^ Fund (RDIF), Russian Direct Investment. "RDIF and ChemRar to supply Avifavir to 17 countries". www.prnewswire.co.uk. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  22. ^ "Russia becomes first country to register a coronavirus vaccine". euronews. 11 August 2020. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  23. ^ "Sputnik V - the first registered vaccine against COVID-19. Official website vaccine against coronavirus Sputnik V." www.sputnikvaccine.com. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  24. ^ Whipple, Tom; Rana, Manveen (17 October 2020). "Russian Kirill Dmitriev drops coronavirus 'monkey vaccine' jibe". The Times. Retrieved 17 October 2020.
  25. ^ Twitter https://twitter.com/sputnikvaccine/status/1330869140358377472. Retrieved 29 March 2021. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  26. ^ Ellyatt, Holly (17 December 2020). "2021 will see 'vaccine cooperation, not competition,' Russian official says after AstraZeneca tie-up". CNBC. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  27. ^ "Russian Direct Investment Fund". rdif.ru. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  28. ^ biopharma-reporter.com (9 February 2021). "Clinical trial set to test efficacy of mixing Sputnik V and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca". biopharma-reporter.com. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
  29. ^ "List of Active Young Global Leaders". World Economic Forum. 26 January 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2014.
  30. ^ Kreutzer, Laura (17 March 2009), "PE's Young Turks Rub Elbows With Tiger Woods", Wall Street Journal (Private Equity Blog ed.)
  31. ^ "ABAC Members | APEC Business Advisory Council". www2.abaconline.org. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  32. ^ "Members of Business Council: Russia – BRICS Information Sharing & Exchanging Platform". 9 June 2014. Retrieved 6 October 2020.
  33. ^ "Кирилл Дмитриев вошёл в состав Попечительского совета ГИТИСа". gitis.net. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  34. ^ "Kirill Dmitriev". World Economic Forum. Retrieved 22 January 2015.
  35. ^ Horwitz, Sari; Barrett, Devlin (7 March 2018). "Mueller gathers evidence that 2017 Seychelles meeting was effort to establish back channel to Kremlin". The Washington Post. Prince told lawmakers on the House Intelligence Committee that he did not plan to meet Dmitriev in the Seychelles but that once he was there discussing possible business deals with UAE officials, they unexpectedly suggested that he visit the hotel bar and meet Dmitriev.
  36. ^ Mazzetti, Mark; Kirkpatrick, David D.; Goldman, Adam (6 March 2018). "Adviser to Emirates With Ties to Trump Aides Is Cooperating With Special Counsel". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  37. ^ a b Thomas, Pierre; Meek, James Gordon (April 6, 2018). "Trump supporter, Putin ally meeting may not have been by chance: Sources". ABC News. Archived from the original on April 6, 2018. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
  38. ^ Mueller report, vol.1, p.151
  39. ^ "Putin ally suggests Seychelles meeting more than chance encounter". ABC News.
  40. ^ Mazzetti, Mark; Kirkpatrick, David D.; Goldman, Adam (6 March 2018). "Adviser to Emirates With Ties to Trump Aides Is Cooperating With Special Counsel". The New York Times.
  41. ^ Entous, Adam; Miller, Greg; Sieff, Kevin; DeYoung, Karen (April 3, 2017). "Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 3, 2017. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  42. ^ Raju, Manu; Herb, Jeremy; Cohen, Marshall (December 1, 2017). "Prince details meeting with Russian banker". CNN. Archived from the original on March 6, 2018. Retrieved March 7, 2018.
  43. ^ Banco, Erin (18 April 2019). "Mueller Exposes Erik Prince's Lies About Russian Rendezvous". Daily Beast. Retrieved 23 July 2019.
  44. ^ Horwitz, Sari; Barrett, Devlin (March 7, 2018). "Mueller gathers evidence that 2017 Seychelles meeting was effort to establish back channel to Kremlin". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on March 8, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2018.
  45. ^ Singman, Brooke (30 April 2019). "Schiff says he'll send a criminal referral to DOJ for Erik Prince over alleged false statements to Congress". Fox News.
  46. ^ John Wagner; Karoun Demirjian (30 April 2019). "Democrats accuse Trump ally Erik Prince of lying to Congress, refer case to Justice Dept. for possible prosecution". WashingtonPost.com. Retrieved 30 April 2019.
  47. ^ Cheney, Kyle (5 February 2020). "DOJ reviews allegation that Erik Prince misled Congress in Russia probe". Politico.
  48. ^ Boyd, Stephen Elliott (4 February 2020). "Dear Chairman Schiff". Letter to Adam Schiff. Archived from the original on 5 February 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2020.
  49. ^ bearer shares vs. registered shares: Flexibility and privacy at its best
  50. ^ Dawisha, Karen. Putin's Kleptocracy. Chapter 6 The Founding of the Putin System, page 301
  51. ^ Matthew Chance, Olga Pavlova and Mary Ilyushina (15 February 2019). "Prominent US investor detained in Russia". CNN. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  52. ^ "Russian wealth fund calls for detained U.S. investor to be freed..." Reuters. 21 February 2019. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  53. ^ Kramer, Andrew E. (11 April 2019). "Russian Court Orders Release of Michael Calvey, American Businessman". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 7 May 2019.
  54. ^ Dmitriev, Kirill (27 November 2008), "Crisis: five rules for survival", Vedomosti
  55. ^ Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 12 июня 2017 года № 266 «О награждении государственными наградами Российской Федерации»
  56. ^ Указ Президента Российской Федерации от 16.04.2020 № 271 «О награждении государственными наградами Российской Федерации»
  57. ^ "Cérémonie de remise de décoration à Kirill Dmitriev, Président du FRID (19 novembre 2018)". La France en Russie (in French). Retrieved 23 November 2018.
  58. ^ "HRH Crown Prince Decorates RDIF CEO With King Abdulaziz Second Class Scarf The official Saudi Press Agency". www.spa.gov.sa. Retrieved 7 October 2019.
  59. ^ "L'AD della RDIF Kirill Dmitriev è stato insignito della Stella d'Italia". ambmosca.esteri.it. Retrieved 14 May 2020.
  60. ^ "Глава РФПИ награжден Орденом дружбы Казахстана - Россия || Интерфакс Россия". www.interfax-russia.ru (in Russian). 20 December 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2021.
  61. ^ "Иннопрактика Правление Фонда" [Innopraktika Foundation Board] (PDF). «Иннопрактика» website (in Russian). 2013. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 January 2021. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  62. ^ a b "Расследование РБК: кто стоит за расширением МГУ: Кто руководит проектом создания технологической долины МГУ, какие за этим коммерческие интересы и почему масштабная стройка привлекла крупнейший российский бизнес" [RBC investigation: who is behind the expansion of Moscow State University: Who is in charge of the project to create the technological valley of Moscow State University, what are the commercial interests behind this, and why the large-scale construction attracted the largest Russian business]. РБК (RBC) (in Russian). 28 January 2018. Archived from the original on 25 October 2015. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
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