A number of American companies are expected to return to Russia in the second quarter of this year, the Kremlin’s sovereign wealth fund said, as Washington and Moscow thaw relations following a first round of talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. 

Kirill Dmitriev, head of the fund, warned that the return “will not be easy” for American companies as “many niches are already taken”. 

He claimed on Tuesday that US businesses lost more than $300 billion after their withdrawal from Russia in response to the Ukraine invasion.

“Finding joint economic ways and positive solutions to issues is extremely important mainly for the United States and for many other countries that are beginning to realise that the Russian market is extremely attractive and needs to be present on it,” he added, ahead of the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia. 

The talks saw Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meet for the first time to discuss terms to bring an end to the war. 

After more than four hours of negotiations, it emerged that both sides had agreed elections should be held in Ukraine before a final peace settlement is reached.

Donald Trump later appeared to place blame for the war on Ukraine, saying that a “half-baked negotiator could have settled this years ago without the loss of much land, very little land, without the loss of any lives, and without the loss of cities that are just laying on their sides”.