Andrew Korybko
They’re worth paying attention to since he might
reasonably be consulted by Putin or other policymakers given his renown as one
of the world’s top experts in this field
Dimitri Simes is definitely
one of the world’s top experts on Russian-US relations. He used to advise
Richard Nixon and even ran his institution for nearly three decades, advised
Trump in 2016, hosts a leading show on Russian TV, and moderated an economic-political
session with Putin in 2023. That’s why his longform
interview with RT is so important for folks to pay attention to, but
given its length and some readers’ limited time, this piece will highlight his
main points for convenience and then analyze them.
Contrary to common
assumptions, Simes said, not a lot actually unites Russians and Americans
nowadays due to the “tremendous changes – demographically, culturally, and in
terms of lifestyle” – that the latter have undergone in recent decades. He
elaborated that the US’ demographic changes in particular, transformation from
a “melting pot” to a “mixed salad”, and political correctness widened
differences with Russians and pose serious domestic challenges.
On the international front, Russia and the US nowadays embrace the opposite worldviews of multipolarity and global dominance, but this wasn’t predetermined. According to Simes, while “certain factors do foster mutual distrust and place competition above cooperation”, political émigrés from the USSR and some former Soviet Republics’ deep resentment of Russia emboldened liberal globalists in the US after the (Old) Cold War to take a harder line towards Russia. They then also underestimated it.


















