The Russian Federation may be trying a new vector into the United States’ good books, with an approach to Elon Musk by the head of the country’s sovereign wealth fund on the possibility of a joint Mars mission.
With just minutes to go before U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, a prominent American-‘friendly’ figure in the Kremlin spoke up on his hopes for making Elon Musk’s proposed manned mission to Mars a joint venture with Moscow. Head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund Fund Kirill Dmitriev said he thought there would “certainly” be discussions with Musk “in the near future”, Russian state media reports.
Ukrainian-born, American-educated Dmitriev, who attended Harvard and Stanford before working at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey before moving to Russia was appointed by Vladimir Putin to head the Russian sovereign wealth fund in 2011. Both he and the wealth fund are sanctioned by the United States.
Per Reuters, he was a figure of consequence in conversations between the White House and the Kremlin in President Trump’s first term and has been involved in the Saudi Arabia talks on a Ukraine ceasefire this year.
Pouring flattery on the South African-American rocket billionaire, Dmitriev continued on Tuesday: “we believe that Musk is a unique leader who is focused on humanity moving forward together. And his focus is on the fact that we must move forward creatively – of course, we see this, and he is one of the greatest leaders of our time”.
Dmitriev also spoke on these lines on Saturday, when he noted 2025 was the 50th anniversary of the first joint U.S.-USSR space mission, and called for a joint Mars mission. He wrote then: “Will 2029 be the year of a joint US-Russian mission to Mars, Elon Musk? Our minds and technologies must serve for the benefit of humanity, not for its destruction”.
On Tuesday, the businessman and diplomat appeared to further draw significance from the SpaceX Dragon return flight from the International Space Station, which as asserted had American and Russian astronauts aboard.
Dmitriev’s apparent offer Russian money and support in return for a bid at being one of the first countries with men on Mars is not the only such pitch from Russia today, when headlines are already dominated by the feel-good story of Musk’s rescue mission to the Space Station. Indeed, on Tuesday morning RIA Novosti, Russian state media formerly known as the Soviet Information Bureau carried a story on Russian scientists working to produce a ‘space suit’ for use on the surface of Mars.
