Dimitri Konstantinovich Simes (Russian: Дмитрий Константинович Саймс; born October 29, 1947) is a Russian-American author, editor, and political pundit. He is the former president and CEO of The Center for the National Interest, where he served from 1994 to 2022. Simes was selected to lead the Center by former PresidentRichard Nixon, to whom he served as an informal foreign policy advisor and with whom he traveled regularly to Russia and other former Soviet states as well as Western and Central Europe.
Simes was born in Moscow to prominent human rights lawyers in the Soviet Union.[1][2] He is a naturalized citizen of the United States.[3] He immigrated to the United States in 1973, seeking intellectual and political freedom; he had twice been expelled from university in Russia for protesting Soviet involvement in the Vietnam War.[3] Simes's mother, Dina Kaminskaya, was born in Yekaterinoslav and his father, Konstantin Simis, was born in Odesa, UkrSSR.[1][4] In 1977, his mother was expelled from the Soviet Union for working as a lawyer for Soviet dissidents.[2]
Simes authored a book After the Collapse: Russia Seeks its Place as a Great Power (published by Simon and Schuster).[5]
In February 2015, Simes met with Russian president Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials in Moscow.[6]
In June 2023, Simes hosted the annual St Petersburg Economic Forum in Russia and was described by The Telegraph as “an ethnic Russian US citizen who has become a cheerleader for the Kremlin after previously advising Richard Nixon on foreign affairs.”[11] The Kremlin had hoped to find a high-profile host such as an anchor of a major TV network, however, due to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine no high-profile host agreed to come, so Simes was invited instead.[12]
