**Putin’s Special Envoy Dmitriev Targets U.S. Far Right to Undermine Support for Ukraine**
*By Mark Toth and Jonathan Sweet | The Hill | November 6, 2025*

Vladmir Putin’s special envoy and head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, has suddenly become ubiquitous in U.S. political discourse. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has been largely quiet since his maximalist negotiating approach with Team Trump failed.

Moscow, presumably guided by Lavrov, after securing a concession on Tomahawk missiles, chose to maintain Putin’s hardline demands for ending the war in Ukraine prior to the proposed Trump-Putin summit in Budapest. According to Moscow’s terms, NATO would have to admit that it was the root cause of the war, Kyiv would have to cede all of the Donbas region, and the Armed Forces of Ukraine would essentially have to disband. None of these demands are likely to be met.

When Russia’s Plan A failed, Putin shifted to Plan B to capture Team Trump’s attention—testing his latest “wunderwaffe.” Trump was reportedly unimpressed, calling Putin’s testing of the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile “not appropriate.” Following this, Trump canceled the Budapest meeting after Putin’s nuclear provocations.

In response, the U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil. Putin’s oil and energy sector, already weakened by long-range Ukrainian strikes on refineries and pipelines, remains Moscow’s lifeline for funding the ongoing military operation in Ukraine.

A week later, Putin announced testing of a nuclear-capable underwater drone codenamed Poseidon. Then, in response to Trump’s threat to resume nuclear testing, Putin instructed Kremlin officials to “submit plans for the possible resumption of [Russian] nuclear testing.”

Under the Biden administration and continuing now, Putin’s favorite tactic has been nuclear bluffing. However, this nuclear “Kabuki theater” appears to have little effect on Team Trump.

### Dmitriev’s Mission: Winning Over the U.S. Far Right

Enter Kirill Dmitriev. Putin is aware that both he and Lavrov overplayed their hand. Dmitriev’s mission appears to be finding a way back “in from the cold.” The Stanford- and Harvard-educated 50-year-old seems to believe that reaching out to the U.S. far right is his best path forward.

Fearmongering is Dmitriev’s chosen tool. However, his underlying mission is to undermine U.S. military support and aid for Ukraine.

In pursuit of this goal, Dmitriev recently met with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), thanking her for supporting Putin’s unreasonable negotiating demands on Ukraine. He also appeared on a podcast with Lara Logan, falsely claiming that Putin upholds “traditional [conservative] values.” But deliberately targeting civilians in Ukraine is neither conservative nor liberal — it is a war crime. The same applies to the kidnapping of Ukrainian children.

Steven Moore, a former Capitol Hill chief of staff and founder of the Ukrainian Freedom Project, told us that with the “collapse of Tucker Carlson, who has always been on message for the Kremlin, the Russians are looking for a new way to pretend that they care about America’s culture wars.” Dmitriev seems to have been tasked with exactly that.

Following Zohran Mamdani’s recent victory in the high-profile New York City mayoral race, Dmitriev posted that George Soros had been a key backer of Mamdani’s campaign. Later that evening, he quote-tweeted the New York Post’s cover, captioned “On your Marx, get set, Zo!” while adding, “Good Morning, NYC Comrades!”

Few expected a Putin stooge to warn Americans about a “communist in sheep’s clothing.” Yet Dmitriev delivered precisely that message. His aim was not to genuinely warn Americans but rather to undermine growing U.S. support for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

### Undermining Republican Support for Ukraine

To succeed, Dmitriev must erode the increasing Republican backing for military aid to Ukraine. Thus, he attempts to court America’s conservative base by exploiting fears of communism and making fictitious claims about Russian conservative and religious values.

This strategy comes amid a resurgence of Republican support for U.S. economic and military assistance to Ukraine. As Moore noted in a recent *Wall Street Journal* op-ed, Republican voter support for aid had dropped to 19 percent by March 2025 but has since rebounded to 47 percent among Trump voters.

Notably, Christian Republicans who attend church weekly are a key demographic behind this renewed support. They may be recognizing that Ukraine is a deeply religious country sharing many core values with America.

Moore emphasized, “80 percent of Ukrainians identify as Christians. Baptists are the third largest Christian denomination in Ukraine after Orthodox and Catholics.” Roughly half of Ukrainians attend religious services at least once a month, compared to fewer than 10 percent of Russians.

Putin, hypocritically framing his war as a religious crusade, has the Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill declare the invasion a “Holy War” against a West that has “fallen into Satanism.”

### Dmitriev’s Efforts Are Unlikely to Succeed

Dmitriev is not fooling Team Trump. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent reportedly dismissed Dmitriev after the latter claimed that new U.S. sanctions would have no impact on the Russian economy. Yet Dmitriev persists, apparently believing that he and Putin have a seat at America’s culture war table.

Americans across the political spectrum should dispel this notion by firmly showing Dmitriev the door.

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*Topics: Foreign Affairs, Government, News/Current Events*
*Keywords: dupe, Putin, Trump, war*

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*Disclaimer: Opinions posted here are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily represent the views of The Hill or its management.*

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