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Even as the Kremlin has so far refused to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the US presidential race, at least one influential Russian finance leader appeared more optimistic about his victory’s potential benefits.
In a statement to Semafor columnist Hadley Gamble, Kirill Dmitriev, the CEO of Russian sovereign wealth fund Direct Investment Fund praised Trump and said his victory “opens up new opportunities for resetting relations between Russia and the United States.”
A Kremlin spokesperson said Vladimir Putin does not plan to congratulate Trump, since the US is an “unfriendly country,” and that the next US president would be judged on “concrete steps and concrete words.”
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Trump has repeatedly promised to end the war in Ukraine, which Kyiv fears could mean brokering a deal in which it must cede territory to Russia. Moscow was made a pariah in the West since the 2022 invasion, and it’s still too soon to say how that calculation could change under a second Trump presidency.
It’s unclear how Trump’s administration could change Russia’s economic and political relationship with the US, but Trump did mention Russia in the context of oil during his victory speech on Wednesday: “We have more liquid gold — oil and gas — than any country in the world. More than Saudi Arabia, more than Russia.” Oil prices fell on the news of Trump’s win, along with other commodities.
Many Gulf leaders preferred Trump, Semafor’s Gamble noted, but the Republican’s fossil fuel-reliant “energy dominance” policy proposal presents a challenge to those countries that are still economically reliant on fossil fuels, even as they seek to diversify from the industry.
— Semafor Gulf’s Mohammed Sergie contributed to this report.