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Dimitri Konstantinovich Simes

The Department of Justice unsealed two indictments 05 September 2024 charging Dimitri Simes, 76, and Anastasia Simes, 55, both of Huntly, Virginia, and Russia with two separate schemes to violate U.S. sanctions. Simes, a dual citizen of Russia and the United States, served as an adviser to former President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign. Simes remains a controversial figure, now based in Russia, where he continues to engage in media and political commentary supporting the Kremlin’s stance.

As alleged in the first indictment, Dimitri and Anastasia Simes participated in a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions for the benefit of sanctioned Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia and to launder funds obtained from that scheme. Channel One Russia, a state-owned Russian television station, was sanctioned by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) on May 8, 2022, for being owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, the Government of the Russian Federation.

Dimitri Simes was born in 1947 in Moscow in the former Soviet Union and graduated from Moscow University. He was Deputy Secretary of the Komsomol Organization [All-Union Leninist Young Communist League] at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations and an international lecturer at the Moscow City Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

Though he served as an analyst of international affairs at the IMEMO institute, he decided to immigrate to the U.S. in 1973. Here he was able to write insightfully about the Soviet government that he knew firsthand, including its foreign policies. This authority made him invaluable as an informal foreign policy advisor to President Nixon with whom he traveled to Moscow around the fall of the Soviet Union.

Dimitri Simes has often been linked to speculation regarding his involvement with Soviet and Russian intelligence services, including the KGB, though there is no confirmed public evidence that directly supports the claim that he was formally a KGB agent. Simes’ associations with prominent figures in both Russian and U.S. political spheres, especially his ties to influential Russian officials, have fueled these speculations. His career largely focused on academia, policy advising, and media, without any documented military service or rank.

Since then Simes served as President of the Nixon Center and president and CEO of the Center for the National Interest. Nixon wanted to establish a realistic think tank, called the ‘Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom,’ and in 1994 he turned to Simes to run it. But by 2011, the Nixon family had to cut relations with the Center for the National Interest. Simes had grown too close with Russian president Vladimir Putin.

His articles have been published in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and he participated in discussions on Ukraine-Russia relations at the Atlantic Council. He is the author of After the Collapse: Russia Seeks Its Place as a Great Power and has lectured at the University of California Berkeley and Columbia University.

In 2005 two English-language Russian sources, a Russian-American newspaper Kommersant and Moscow Times reported that “Simes had met with the Kremlin adviser Gleb Pavlovsky and Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska — Putin’s close ally, a man on FBI organized crime list and Paul Manafort’s former business partner” — to discuss forming a Russian-funded think tank.

His name became prominent in investigations regarding Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Simes's name was mentioned more than 100 times in a 2019 report by U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller entitled Report On The Investigation Into Russian Interference In The 2016 Presidential Election. Simes was scrutinized due to his role as president of The Center for the National Interest (CNI), a Washington-based think tank that had ties to both the Trump campaign and Russian officials. Simes helped organize a foreign policy speech by Donald Trump in April 2016, attended by Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, which raised questions about potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russian interests. Although Simes himself was not accused of criminal wrongdoing, the report details how individuals like him and institutions such as the CNI played a role in facilitating contacts between Trump associates and Russian officials. Simes was also associated with figures like Maria Butina, a Russian agent later convicted of acting as an unregistered foreign agent. Simes' interactions with the Trump campaign and Russian figures attracted attention due to the broader investigation into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russian efforts to interfere in the election. The Mueller Report ultimately did not accuse him of illegal actions but highlighted the complexity of his position.

In 2022, Simes relocated to Russia and became a moderator for a Russian TV program on Channel One. His involvement with Russian media, especially his work for the state-sanctioned Channel One during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, led to U.S. government charges against him. In August 2024, the FBI raided his home in Virginia as part of an investigation into violations of sanctions and money laundering. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided the house owned by Simes. FBI agents first descended on his estate in Rappahannock County, Virginia, on Tuesday morning 14 August 2024 and came again on Thursday morning (local time) 16 August 2024. Neighbors told the news outlet that the agents were seemingly confiscating things. "The FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity. We have no further comment as this is an ongoing matter," Public Affairs Officer at the FBI Samantha Shero told the news portal Rappahannock News.

"I was not officially notified of any action. I have not seen a warrant. I was not contacted by any law enforcement or anyone else whatsoever," Simes said. "I’m puzzled and concerned. I certainly will take steps to get proper information and then to take proper action," he continued as he said that he was unaware if he was at the center of any law enforcement investigation.

From at least in or around June 2022 through the present, Dimitri Simes, Anastasia Simes and others allegedly participated in a scheme to violate the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), by providing services to Channel One Russia, including by serving as a presenter and producer of programming, and by receiving over $1 million, a personal car and driver, a stipend for an apartment in Moscow, Russia, and a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia following its designation by OFAC. The indictment alleges that Dimitri and Anastasia Simes also engaged in a scheme to commit money laundering, knowing the transactions were intended to conceal the proceeds of IEEPA violations.

Dimitri and Anastasia Simes maintain a home in Huntly, Virginia. They remain at large and are believed to be in Russia. They are each charged with one count of conspiracy to violate the IEEPA, one count of violating the IEEPA, and one count of conspiracy to commit international money laundering. If convicted, they face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count.

As alleged in the second indictment, Anastasia Simes further participated in a scheme to violate U.S. sanctions for the benefit of, and to receive funds from, sanctioned oligarch Aleksandr Yevgenyevich Udodov. Udodov was sanctioned by OFAC on Feb. 23, 2023 for operating or having operated in the management consulting sector of the Russian Federation economy. From at least in or around February 2023 through the present, Anastasia Simes and others allegedly participated in a scheme to violate IEEPA by purchasing art and antiques for the benefit of Udovov from galleries and auction houses in the United States and Europe, and having the items shipped to her residence in Huntly, Virginia, where they were stored for onward shipment to Russia. In return, Anastasia Simes was reimbursed and received a service fee. The indictment alleges that Anastasia Simes also engaged in a scheme to commit money laundering, knowing the transactions were intended to conceal the proceeds of IEEPA violations.

In an interview with Kommersant correspondent Elena Chernenko, Simes responed : "I’m accused of money laundering. But of what, according to the US Department of Justice? It’s from my salary, which went into an account at Rosbank in Moscow, the bank used by Channel One, I transferred some of the money to my bank in Washington. And why do you think? To pay my American taxes [the US has dual taxation for citizens working abroad – RT]!

"In my opinion, not only was there nothing illegal about it, there was nothing unethical about it either. They [the US authorities] say that, somehow, I was hiding something. That I could not transfer money directly from a Russian bank to an American bank. That it’s impossible because of American sanctions. So, I had to transfer money through a third bank. This, of course, complicated the process, but there is nothing illegal [about it] in either Russian or American law. It is simply outrageous to call it money laundering....

"I personally spoke to a senior US administration official about this. I was told that, of course, we do not approve of your work at Channel One, and if you continue to work there, it will not help your reputation and career in America, but this sanctions decree is aimed at curbing the channel’s financial revenues, not at preventing journalists from working. In other words, I felt that, from the point of view of the US administration, I was doing something undesirable but not something for which I could be prosecuted....

"The “[Andrey] Yermak- [Michael] McFaul Expert Group on Russian Sanctions” [run by Vladimir Zelesnky’s top advisor and a former US ambassador to Russia, to develop recommendations on sanctions] is working on this conspiracy. This is a legalized form of high-level Ukrainian interference in decision-making in Washington.

"And I would be very interested to understand how it was that when my house [in the US] was searched [in August], which lasted four days, and things were taken out by trucks with trailers, how it was that on my lawn, according to the neighbors, there were about 50 people, many of whom came not in official cars, as the FBI usually does, but in private cars. And how was it that these people, some of whom later turned up in a shop in a neighbouring small town, somehow spoke Ukrainian? I would really like to understand what role Ukrainian interference in American politics played in this situation."