My negotiations with Kirill Dmitriev: 15 years ago in Kyiv.

There was a lot of news about the arrival of Kirill Dmitriev and his negotiations with Special Envoy Witikoff. I figured I should share my story with him.

For those who haven’t been following the news. Kirill Dimitriev is the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund and a close ally of Russian dictator Putin, both professionally and personally.

Kirill is a worldly fellow, having studied in America on an exchange program paid for by the US government. He remained in the States and attended community college. After receiving an AA, he transferred to Stanford for his BA and then to Harvard for an MBA.

He started his career as an investment banker in New York, but high oil prices pulled him back to Russia. From 2011, he has been the CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.

On paper, the Russian Direct Investment Fund is the Sovereign Wealth Fund of the Russian Republic. In reality, it is a personal slush fund of President Putin to reward allies with “investment” of state funds into their businesses and pockets. Kirill also sits on the Board of RosTelecom, Gazprombank, Russia Railways and Transneft: the key State-owned companies of the Russian economy.

In short, he is Putin’s personal banker.

As an English-speaking, Harvard-graduate, investment banker, he is a more presentable negotiating partner than Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister who looks like a Soviet-era bureaucrat from the 1980’s since he is actually a Soviet-era bureaucrat who served in the Soviet Permanent Mission to the United Nations under Brezhnev in 1981.

I am not privy to recent discussions of Kirill and Mr. Witikoff but had a chance to negotiate with Mr. Dmitriev a few years ago.

In the 2000’s I ran KP Media, the largest consumer-facing internet company in Ukraine and leading magazine publisher. Tech was booming as were emerging markets in general, so I met with a lot of bankers.

Kirill Dmitriev was working for Ikon private equity and was introduced to me through a mutual business acquaintance in spring 2007.

Kirill reached out to me and invited me to lunch. He began to wow me with promises of a quick deal and riches. As sometimes happened in the Russian-influenced business world, he offered me the proverbial wine, woman and song.

I can’t remember the exact details of his proposal, but I was inexperienced in the ways of investment bankers and baffled by the offer.

We met a few more times and each time I asked for details and, most important, confirmation of the actual money and that he could sign off on the deal.

Back and forth the talks went but always falling short when it came time for him to confirm that he could deliver on his promises. In the end, I walked away after several fruitless meetings. (I subsequently listed the company and exited without further assistance from Mr. Dmitriev.)

I hope Special Envoy Witikoff had constructive conversations with Kirill Dmitriev. Any steps which stop the daily Russian bombs falling on Ukrainian civilians are appreciated. I would only advise double checking that Kirill Dimitriev is making promises he can actually deliver on.