ECONOMY
Russian Big Business Lobby Outlines Most Promising Opportunities for Potential Renewed US-Russia Cooperation
April 21, 2026
At its recent congress, the RSPP, an organization representing Russian big businesses, outlined priority areas for US-Russia cooperation, should it be restarted. Meanwhile, Putin has reportedly told business leaders that he intends to continue the war in Ukraine until “we will get to the borders of the Donbas.”
The Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), during its congress at end-March, outlined several areas where cooperation with the US could potentially be restored. The resolution itself has not yet been published, but the contents of the draft resolution have been reported by RBC.
Among the most promising areas for renewed cooperation, the RSPP highlighted the following:
Note that the position of the RSPP does not constitute the official Kremlin line. Indeed, presidential spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said Putin had not discussed joint projects with the US with RSPP congress participants.
The congress also drew some attention from the US side. On the day the event took place, the head of AmCham Russia, Robert Agee, said he also hoped that “US companies will return to the Russian market. Not immediately, of course… We are already working on a number of projects, and we are talking about big sums.”
Among the most promising areas for renewed cooperation, the RSPP highlighted the following:
- development of mineral deposits and extraction of natural resources in Murmansk Region, the Southern Urals, Siberia and the Sea of Okhotsk;
- cooperation in the Arctic;
- cooperation in space;
- cooperation in energy, including nuclear energy;
- resumption of supplies to the US of Russian rolled products made from aluminum alloys and titanium for US aviation companies;
- resumption of cooperation with US metallurgical firms for the supply of Russian carbon-graphite products, in particular graphite and carbon electrodes;
- and restoration and development of industrial cooperation in renewable energy, including the lifting of sanctions on Russian manufacturers of equipment for renewable energy generation (e.g., photovoltaic modules and converters, electrical equipment for solar power plants).
Note that the position of the RSPP does not constitute the official Kremlin line. Indeed, presidential spokesperson Dmitri Peskov said Putin had not discussed joint projects with the US with RSPP congress participants.
The congress also drew some attention from the US side. On the day the event took place, the head of AmCham Russia, Robert Agee, said he also hoped that “US companies will return to the Russian market. Not immediately, of course… We are already working on a number of projects, and we are talking about big sums.”
The head of Roscosmos Dmitry Bakanov in Florida
Roscosmos / Telegram
Roscosmos / Telegram
Potential projects
The RSPP does not name specific projects for renewed cooperation. However, one of the key topics in US-Russia negotiations last year was rare earth metals, and Russia possesses significant reserves of rare earth raw materials. According to a government report on the condition and use of mineral resources, Russia ranks fourth in the world in terms of rare earth reserves and seventh in production. The largest concentration of these reserves is found in the Murmansk Region, as mentioned in the RSPP list, with others in the Southern Urals and Siberia. Moreover, Murmansk Region is currently the only area where rare earths are actually being mined – at the Lovozero deposit, operated by Rosatom.
Meanwhile, extraction projects in the Sea of Okhotsk may refer to a proposal to bring the US oil company ExxonMobil back into the Sakhalin-1 project.
In the space sector, high-level contacts resumed last year, when the new head of Roscosmos, Dmitri Bakanov, met in Florida with the acting head of NASA, Sean Duffy. The occasion for the meeting was the launch of the Crew-11 mission with a Russian cosmonaut on board. The chiefs of the space agencies discussed further work on the ISS, cooperation on lunar programs and a possible extension of a seat-swap agreement.
Since 2024, Washington has imposed restrictions on imports of Russian nuclear fuel. Prior to that, Russia accounted for around a quarter of the uranium used by US nuclear power plants.
A key buyer of Russian titanium was Boeing. The share of titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma in the global aviation industry previously reached up to 30%, while major aircraft manufacturers – Boeing and Airbus – were estimated to source 40-60% of their titanium from Russia. However, after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, from March 2022, Boeing refused to purchase Russian metal. Reports that it might revise its decision have appeared repeatedly starting in 2022, but this has yet to materialize.
In addition, in February last year, Putin proposed the US consider a joint aluminum project. Historically, Russia has accounted for around 10% of total US aluminum imports. After Washington imposed prohibitive tariffs of 200% on Russian aluminum in 2023, supplies of the metal effectively fell to near zero. Based on the financial statements of Rusal – the largest aluminum producer outside of China – the US accounted for 7.4% of the company’s revenue in 2022, or $1.035 billion. In subsequent years, this share has declined roughly sevenfold.
Still, even a year ago, experts noted that a resumption of US-Russia cooperation would require the lifting of sanctions, which is deemed to be possible only after the end of the war in Ukraine.
The RSPP does not name specific projects for renewed cooperation. However, one of the key topics in US-Russia negotiations last year was rare earth metals, and Russia possesses significant reserves of rare earth raw materials. According to a government report on the condition and use of mineral resources, Russia ranks fourth in the world in terms of rare earth reserves and seventh in production. The largest concentration of these reserves is found in the Murmansk Region, as mentioned in the RSPP list, with others in the Southern Urals and Siberia. Moreover, Murmansk Region is currently the only area where rare earths are actually being mined – at the Lovozero deposit, operated by Rosatom.
Meanwhile, extraction projects in the Sea of Okhotsk may refer to a proposal to bring the US oil company ExxonMobil back into the Sakhalin-1 project.
In the space sector, high-level contacts resumed last year, when the new head of Roscosmos, Dmitri Bakanov, met in Florida with the acting head of NASA, Sean Duffy. The occasion for the meeting was the launch of the Crew-11 mission with a Russian cosmonaut on board. The chiefs of the space agencies discussed further work on the ISS, cooperation on lunar programs and a possible extension of a seat-swap agreement.
Since 2024, Washington has imposed restrictions on imports of Russian nuclear fuel. Prior to that, Russia accounted for around a quarter of the uranium used by US nuclear power plants.
A key buyer of Russian titanium was Boeing. The share of titanium producer VSMPO-Avisma in the global aviation industry previously reached up to 30%, while major aircraft manufacturers – Boeing and Airbus – were estimated to source 40-60% of their titanium from Russia. However, after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, from March 2022, Boeing refused to purchase Russian metal. Reports that it might revise its decision have appeared repeatedly starting in 2022, but this has yet to materialize.
In addition, in February last year, Putin proposed the US consider a joint aluminum project. Historically, Russia has accounted for around 10% of total US aluminum imports. After Washington imposed prohibitive tariffs of 200% on Russian aluminum in 2023, supplies of the metal effectively fell to near zero. Based on the financial statements of Rusal – the largest aluminum producer outside of China – the US accounted for 7.4% of the company’s revenue in 2022, or $1.035 billion. In subsequent years, this share has declined roughly sevenfold.
Still, even a year ago, experts noted that a resumption of US-Russia cooperation would require the lifting of sanctions, which is deemed to be possible only after the end of the war in Ukraine.
Putin at the recent RSPP congress.
Kremlin.ru
Kremlin.ru
Who is the RSPP?
The RSPP is the most popular and influential organization advocating the interests of large Russian businesses. It has traditionally played the role of a kind of partner to the state on issues related to regulating key sectors of the economy and is regarded as having relatively significant lobbying power.
The RSPP reached the peak of its influence in the second half of the 1990s, when businessmen who had benefited from privatization came to play a leading role in the organization. At the time, they managed to establish mutually beneficial cooperation with the team of Yeltsin. In exchange for supporting the unpopular Yeltsin, major businessmen received guarantees of property rights and access to the country’s top leadership. During that period, the RSPP was dubbed in the press “the oligarchs’ union,” a phrase that is still occasionally used today.
However, with Putin’s rise to power, the role of the RSPP declined markedly. As part of the policy of maintaining “equal distance” from oligarchs, Putin’s team sought to reduce the political influence of the powerful businessmen of the 1990s. The social contract imposed at the time could be summarized as noninterference in politics by oligarchs in return for guarantees that the outcomes of privatization would not be revisited. As a result, over the past quarter century, the RSPP has functioned primarily as a forum for interaction between big business and the state. It has also taken part in drafting legislation in several areas important for business. In particular, in the early years of Putin’s rule, the organization helped realize a liberalization of tax legislation and land reform, which effectively established the institution of private land ownership in post-Soviet Russia.
At present, however, the RSPP appears to be at a low point in its influence with the country’s top leadership. Though Putin attended the most recent RSPP congress on March 16, he signaled his lack of interest: “we are all, so to speak, up to speed, I will not tell you anything revolutionary. Yet nevertheless, Alexander Nikolaevich (Shokhin, the head of the RSPP – RP) considers such meetings – they do not often take place in such a large format – to be useful. Perhaps there is some sense in this, to establish certain reference points,” Putin said in his remarks. Contrary to usual practice, he did not take questions afterward.
The RSPP is the most popular and influential organization advocating the interests of large Russian businesses. It has traditionally played the role of a kind of partner to the state on issues related to regulating key sectors of the economy and is regarded as having relatively significant lobbying power.
The RSPP reached the peak of its influence in the second half of the 1990s, when businessmen who had benefited from privatization came to play a leading role in the organization. At the time, they managed to establish mutually beneficial cooperation with the team of Yeltsin. In exchange for supporting the unpopular Yeltsin, major businessmen received guarantees of property rights and access to the country’s top leadership. During that period, the RSPP was dubbed in the press “the oligarchs’ union,” a phrase that is still occasionally used today.
However, with Putin’s rise to power, the role of the RSPP declined markedly. As part of the policy of maintaining “equal distance” from oligarchs, Putin’s team sought to reduce the political influence of the powerful businessmen of the 1990s. The social contract imposed at the time could be summarized as noninterference in politics by oligarchs in return for guarantees that the outcomes of privatization would not be revisited. As a result, over the past quarter century, the RSPP has functioned primarily as a forum for interaction between big business and the state. It has also taken part in drafting legislation in several areas important for business. In particular, in the early years of Putin’s rule, the organization helped realize a liberalization of tax legislation and land reform, which effectively established the institution of private land ownership in post-Soviet Russia.
At present, however, the RSPP appears to be at a low point in its influence with the country’s top leadership. Though Putin attended the most recent RSPP congress on March 16, he signaled his lack of interest: “we are all, so to speak, up to speed, I will not tell you anything revolutionary. Yet nevertheless, Alexander Nikolaevich (Shokhin, the head of the RSPP – RP) considers such meetings – they do not often take place in such a large format – to be useful. Perhaps there is some sense in this, to establish certain reference points,” Putin said in his remarks. Contrary to usual practice, he did not take questions afterward.
Suleiman Kerimov.
Hlebushek / Wikimedia Commons
Hlebushek / Wikimedia Commons
Other highlights from the RSPP congress
As usual, many representatives of Russian big business attended the March congress, including Alexei Mordashov (Severstal), Andrei Melnichenko (EuroChem), Vladimir Potanin (Nornickel) and Oleg Deripaska (En+).
The congress received broad coverage in the international press due to a proposal by Putin that large businesses make donations to the state budget to support the war effort, as reported by the FT.
Suleiman Kerimov – a billionaire who recently gained indirect control over Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace – is said to have heeded the call, as reportedly did Deripaska, who controls assets in the aluminum industry and hydropower. At the same closed-door meeting, Putin reportedly told business leaders that he intended to continue the war in Ukraine. “We will get to the borders of the Donbas,” a source told the independent Russian outlet The Bell, recounting Putin’s words.
In addition, as a more systemic solution to the problem of budget shortfalls, participants discussed a windfall tax on the largest companies. This mechanism was introduced in 2023 and has so far been used only once. However, Shokhin expressed doubt that, in the current conditions, any company would have excess profits.
As usual, many representatives of Russian big business attended the March congress, including Alexei Mordashov (Severstal), Andrei Melnichenko (EuroChem), Vladimir Potanin (Nornickel) and Oleg Deripaska (En+).
The congress received broad coverage in the international press due to a proposal by Putin that large businesses make donations to the state budget to support the war effort, as reported by the FT.
Suleiman Kerimov – a billionaire who recently gained indirect control over Wildberries, Russia’s largest online marketplace – is said to have heeded the call, as reportedly did Deripaska, who controls assets in the aluminum industry and hydropower. At the same closed-door meeting, Putin reportedly told business leaders that he intended to continue the war in Ukraine. “We will get to the borders of the Donbas,” a source told the independent Russian outlet The Bell, recounting Putin’s words.
In addition, as a more systemic solution to the problem of budget shortfalls, participants discussed a windfall tax on the largest companies. This mechanism was introduced in 2023 and has so far been used only once. However, Shokhin expressed doubt that, in the current conditions, any company would have excess profits.
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