Dimitri SImes, selected by former President Richard Nixon to be the head (1994-2022) of the Center for the National Interest, was indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for his role as the moderator of the Russian political TV show “Big Game,” on Channel One Russia. Simes was a young dissident in the Soviet Union who immigrated to the U.S. in 1973 and then became a naturalized U.S. citizen. He moved back to Russia in 2022. On Aug. 16, the FBI raided his unoccupied estate in Huntly, Virginia.
Yesterday, the DOJ unsealed criminal indictments against both Dimitri Simes and his wife Anastasia, for allegedly scheming to violate U.S. sanctions. Simes’ employer, Channel One Russia, was sanctioned 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.” That series of “or’s” allows for Simes’ employer standing accused of no more than having “purported to act ... on behalf of” Russia; and Simes and his wife are accused of “providing services to Channel One Russia, including by serving as a presenter and producer of programming,” for which he received over 26 months “over $1 million, a personal car and driver, a stipend for an apartment in Moscow, Russia, and a team of 10 employees” from the station. They face a maximum of 60 years of prison.