Members of U. S. President Donald Trump’s inner circle — a group that includes influential and wealthy entrepreneurs — view Russia as a promising avenue for future economic cooperation, according to reporting by The Wall Street Journal. The newspaper points in particular to special envoy Steven Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law, businessman Jared Kushner.

As described by the publication, Russia is seen by these figures primarily through the lens of its vast natural resources and the breadth of commercial opportunities they believe the country can offer. In this perspective, the Russian market is associated less with geopolitical risk and more with untapped economic potential.

At the same time, The Wall Street Journal notes that such perceptions are hardly unprecedented. Witkoff and Kushner are portrayed as following a well-worn path: they are not the first American businessmen to regard Russia as a kind of modern-day El Dorado. In this long-standing view, the country appears as a land of abundance, where the resolution of the conflict in Ukraine is closely linked, in their thinking, to the prospect of financial gain rather than purely political outcomes.