Russia and the United States are in talks on several new joint projects, among them data centers powered by nuclear energy, following last week’s diesel agreement, President Vladimir Putin’s investment envoy said on Friday.
Kirill Dmitriev acknowledged that US sanctions remain a major obstacle. He described as “misguided” the Graham Act, which US President Donald Trump signed last month and which seeks to cut into Russia’s energy income through sanctions and tariffs.
Even so, Dmitriev said the two countries are looking at other areas of economic cooperation after the diesel agreement.
He said discussions include joint work on Russian and American data centers, some of which could run on small nuclear power plants, but he did not provide further details.
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Earlier this month, Ukraine struck data centers belonging to Russian tech company Yandex and banking and tech group Sberbank, saying the attacks were retaliation for Russian strikes on Ukrainian sites.
Dmitriev, who plays a central role in Russia-US talks on ending the war in Ukraine, has long promoted a series of ambitious possible deals, including in minerals and energy.
The Kremlin has voiced frustration that Washington has so far tied any such agreements to a peace deal, which has yet to materialize.
However, Dmitriev said he believes that is starting to change. Speaking at the Russian Energy Week conference in Moscow, he admitted that progress has been hard and that there is broad resistance from several directions. Still, he said the diesel deal shows that more major initiatives will likely be announced soon, adding that “the ice has, in fact, begun to break.”
He also said Russia is already carrying out projects with the United States and will keep doing so until the end of what the Kremlin calls its “special military operation” in Ukraine.
According to Dmitriev, the US Treasury asked the Russian Direct Investment Fund, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, which he leads, to help resolve complicated payment issues tied to the diesel agreement.
The deal, announced by Trump a week ago, involves supplying Russian diesel to the US and global markets to bring down fuel prices, a top priority for the US president ahead of next month’s midterm elections.
The agreement, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has strongly criticized, requires lifting some of the sanctions on Russian oil that Trump himself put in place.
Dmitriev told the conference that so many layers of sanctions have been stacked on top of each other that it has become confusing and hard to find a way out. He said the US is now holding brainstorming sessions on how to lift them.
He added that his fund will work to make sure all payments are handled efficiently and reach the right recipients.