When Vladimir Putin lands in Alaska on Friday for his high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump, he will be flanked by some of the most powerful figures in the Kremlin’s inner circle – a team of seasoned political operators, financial strategists and diplomatic enforcers who have helped shape Russia’s foreign and economic policy for more than two decades.
The delegation, a mix of old guard loyalists and younger financial power brokers, hints at Putin’s desire to woo Trump and dangle financial incentives for siding with Moscow on Ukraine.
Trump will also be accompanied by a cadre of his most trusted advisers, among them a property mogul, a former hedge fund billionaire and the country’s top diplomat. Despite earlier media reports, Trump’s vice-president JD Vance and his defence secretary Pete Hegseth were not listed in the official delegation.
The US president has long prized loyalty over experience, and many in Kyiv and the west are uneasy about the lack of seasoned Russia experts with real influence in the White House.
Ultimately, though, the summit will come down to a face-to-face meeting between the two men – and putting Trump alone in a room with Putin has always been an unpredictable, and potentially dangerous, affair.
Russian delegation
Sergei Lavrov
The 75-year-old has been in post since 2004, making him one of the longest-tenured senior diplomats in the world. Known for his gravel-voiced delivery and combative press conferences, Lavrov has been central to crafting and defending Moscow’s foreign policy from the Iraq war to the annexation of Crimea and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A career diplomat who joined the Soviet foreign service in 1972, he spent a decade as Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations before assuming his current post.
Once regarded in western capitals as a pragmatic and highly capable diplomat, Lavrov has adopted an increasingly confrontational and at times belligerent tone in tandem with the radicalised politics of Putin’s Kremlin.
Foreign minister
Yuri Ushakov
Ushakov, 78, is a veteran presidential aide and one of Putin’s most trusted foreign policy advisers. A career diplomat with fluent English and a long focus on Washington, he served as Russia’s ambassador to the US from 1998 to 2008.
Known for his calm demeanour and deep institutional memory, Ushakov has served as a behind-the-scenes strategist, coordinating Putin’s international engagements and frequently supplying the president’s talking points to state media.
Foreign policy adviser
Andrei Belousov
The 66-year-old is one of the few technocrats to ascend to the Kremlin’s top security posts.
His surprise appointment in 2024 to replace the longtime incumbent Sergei Shoigu was perceived as an attempt by the Kremlin to rein in corruption in the armed forces and to accelerate the transformation of Russia’s militarised economy into a full-scale war economy, now expanding at double-digit rates.
An economist by training, contemporaries describe Belousov as a deeply religious and loyal technocrat who keeps Orthodox icons and theological books in his modest office.
Defence minister
Kirill Dmitriev
At 50, Dmitriev is a relatively new kid on the Kremlin block, yet has emerged as a key operator between Moscow and the business-oriented Trump administration. US-educated, with stints at Stanford University and Harvard Business School, Dmitriev heads the Kremlin’s $10bn sovereign wealth fund and has openly boasted of his links to American business elites.
He has personal ties to Putin’s family – his wife, Natalya Popova, is a close friend of one of the president’s daughters.
In Alaska, he is expected to pitch ambitious plans for economic and infrastructure cooperation in the Arctic, tempting Trump with the prospect of a lucrative entente between two great powers.
Dmitriev’s rapid rise and overt outreach to Washington have unsettled the Kremlin’s old guard, with reports of friction with senior foreign ministry figures, including Lavrov.
Russian Direct Investment Fund chief
Anton Siluanov
Siluanov, 62, has been in his post since 2011 and is a key architect of the Kremlin’s efforts to keep the economy afloat in the face of the invasion of Ukraine and western sanctions.
Siluanov has been tasked with making Russia’s economy as sanction-proof as possible, and he popularised the term “fortress economy” in Kremlin circles to describe this drive for sanction resilience.
But while sanctions have not brought Russia’s economy to its knees, growth has slowed sharply, and Siluanov’s surprise inclusion in the Alaska delegation signals Moscow’s priority of securing the lifting of western restrictions as part of any peace deal.
Finance minister
US delegation
Marco Rubio
Once a staunch critic of Trump, the 54-year-old former Florida senator is now one of his closest allies.
Over time, Rubio’s influence has grown, with his appointment in May as acting national security adviser making him the first person since Henry Kissinger to hold both posts simultaneously. His more traditional hawkish stance on China and Russia has made him a valued interlocutor in Europe and Kyiv, but it could set him on a collision course with pro-Russia voices in Trump’s inner circle.
Secretary of state
John Ratcliffe
John Ratcliffe, 59, is a former Republican congressman from Texas who served as Trump’s director of national intelligence from 2020 to 2021. His nomination to lead the country’s spy agency in 2025 drew bipartisan support, with lawmakers across the aisle viewing him as well-qualified for the role.
A staunch Trump ally, Ratcliffe rose to prominence by championing hardline conservative positions, advocating for a more aggressive intelligence posture and stressing the strategic threat posed by China.
In Trump’s second term, Ratcliffe has taken a measured approach to the war in Ukraine. Aligning with Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal with Russia and apply pressure on Kyiv, he has at times backed a temporary pause in US intelligence support as a way to spur negotiations. Yet he has also acknowledged Ukraine’s resilience, saying its military has been consistently underestimated and that “they will fight with their bare hands if they have to”.
CIA director
Steve Witkoff
Trump’s 68-year-old special envoy is a name that sends shivers through Kyiv and European capitals.
Appointed in 2025, he has swiftly become Trump’s de facto interlocutor with Putin, despite having no diplomatic experience. In past interviews, Witkoff – who travels to the Kremlin alone and without his own interpreters – has echoed Moscow’s talking points on the war and appeared to legitimise Russia’s territorial gains in Ukraine.
A former New York real-estate lawyer turned property tycoon, Witkoff met Trump in the 1980s while working on one of his Manhattan deals. The two have remained close ever since and Witkoff is fiercely loyal to the president.
Special envoy to Ukraine and the Middle East
Scott Bessent
Scott Bessent, 62, a billionaire investor and longtime Republican donor, has quietly emerged as one of the most influential figures in Trump’s economic orbit. A former chief investment officer at Soros Fund Management, he has been tasked with navigating Trump’s chaotic and often unpredictable approach to tariffs. In Alaska, Bessent is expected to explore economic incentives and investment arrangements that could be offered to Moscow in exchange for concessions – a reminder that this meeting is as much about money as it is about geopolitics.
Treasury secretary
Howard Lutnick
Lutnick, 63, is a Wall Street power broker turned political appointee, a blunt, hard-driving negotiator with a taste for the spotlight. He joined Trump’s second administration in early 2025 as a loyalist outsider, bringing no government experience but deep connections across business and capital markets. Very close to Trump, reportedly speaking with him most nights, Lutnick’s inclusion, like that of Bessent, underscores Washington’s appetite to extract economic gains from the summit.
Secretary of commerce
Apart from the five heavyweights, Trump’s delegation features 11 other officials, among them his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, and press secretary, Karoline Leavitt.
