Dimitri Simes

Dimitri K. Simes

Dimitri Konstantinovich Simes former president and CEO of The Center for the National Interest, where he served from 1994 to 2022.

'A Changing Balance of Power in the Emerging Multipolarity'

From the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD) website:,

"Moscow, December 2024 – Vuk Jeremic, President of the Center for International Relations and Sustainable Development (CIRSD), delivered a speech at the IX Moscow International Conference on Political Risks and Foresight at the MGIMO University titled “International Uncertainty 2025.” Speaking at the opening panel “A Changing Balance of Power in the Emerging Multipolarity,” Jeremić provided a comprehensive analysis of the ongoing geopolitical shifts and the challenges facing the global order.

Jeremić introduced the concept of a geopolitical recession, comparing it to economic recessions but highlighting its longer, more profound cycles that tend to last for decades. He emphasized that this era is marked by declining international cooperation and the inability of multilateral organizations to deliver solutions to pressing global issues.

“The rules of the game in international relations no longer reflect the balance of power among key players,” said Jeremić, calling attention to the dysfunction of existing multilateral frameworks. He outlined three potential responses to this crisis: reforming existing institutions, such as the United Nations, which he argued must begin by addressing India’s underrepresentation in the Security Council; building new institutions, citing the rise of alternative organizations like BRICS; and going to wars, which he described as an unfortunate but increasingly common trend.

“So your can try to fix institutions, build new ones, or go to war. And I think that we’re currently seeing all three being tried by different actors, with different amounts of energy being invested in them,” Jeremić noted.

Looking ahead, Jeremić stressed the importance of dialogue between global powers to resolve conflicts and build a more stable future. “A big hope for emerging from the geopolitical recession and ending conflicts lies in the forthcoming dialogue between Russia and the United States. This dialogue will face significant obstacles and will not be easy, but it remains our best chance and hope for global peace and stability,” Jeremić concluded.

The panel was moderated by Andrey Sushentsov, Dean of the School of International Relations at MGIMO University. Alongside Jeremić, it featured Dimitri Simes, Professor at MGIMO University; Major General S. B. Asthana, Director of the United Service Institution of India; Andrey Denisov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to China (2013–2022) and Senator of the Russian Federation; Alexander Dugin, Russian philosopher and political scientist; and many other distinguished scholars and academics.

Russian connections

In late April 1999, Representative Curt Weldon took a congressional delegation including Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Roscoe Bartlett and others to Kosovo. The purpose of this delegation was to negotiate a Kosovo peace agreement. The negotiations involved our delegation, a group of Russian Duma members, and people close to genocidal dictator Slobodan Milosevic. Russia also sent Russian Mob connected Victor Chernomyrdin as its envoy to Kosovo.

David Swanson was Kucinich’s Press Secretary in 2004. He would go on to write for the Ron Paul Institute, and attend friendship tours with Russia as recently as 2017. He was even approached by Russian Intelligence at one point. He also interviewed Jill Stein about her platform in the 2016 election.

At the 2008 World Russia Forum, Putin propagandist Edward Lozansky introduced Kucinich as a congressman who was close to Russia, whereupon Kucinich gave an eight-minute presentation about how we should be friends with Russia. This speech was his second appearance at this forum, and was delivered shortly after Andranik Migranyan, the man who ran the New York office of Putin’s Think-Tank the “Institute for Democracy and Cooperation.”

Reportedly IDC was an invention based on conversations had between Paul Manafort, Dimitri Simes, Oleg Deripaska and/or Gleb Pavlovsky.

The Discovery Institute is a conservative think tank which co-sponsored the World Russia Forum beginning in 2009.

Kucinich had a speaking slot at the 2010 World Russia Forum. The Russian Orthodox Church sent its emissaries there, as well as Russian Alexander Torshin.

Ed Lozansky, Daniel McAdams, and Dennis Kucinich were all listed as contact points by the Mark Saylor Company lobbying by the Putin backed, break away Republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2010. These Republics were created as ways for Putin to weaken former Soviet States around him in order to gain control over them.

Former Representative Kucinich started off 2013 by signing on as a Fox News Contributor. He spent the rest of Obama’s presidency criticizing his foreign policy — on Fox News and Russia Today.

In April 2013, Kucinich joined the Ron Paul Institute which is a libertarian Republican think tank, and was working on defending the Russian spy Edward Snowden, at the time.

The Ron Paul Institute has a curiously pro-Putin bent, and is led by a contributor to the Russia’s top propaganda website which was forced by the US Department of Justice to register as an agency of the Kremlin.

The Ron Paul Institute’s Executive Director is Daniel McAdams, Russia Today Contributor and Fellow at the Dr Edward Lozansky’s American University - Moscow. John Laughland is on the board with Kucinich, but his central role is to run the Putin funded Paris office of the think tank the Institute of Democracy and Cooperation.

The IDC was founded as an effort to “repair Russia’s damaged image in the US and Europe and at the same time extend the reach and influence of the [Government of Russia],” according to a U.S. State Department cable published by Wikileaks.

Laughland, McAdams, and RPI academic board member Mark Almond also worked for the now-defunct British Helsinki Human Rights Group, a pro-Kremlin NGO that defended dictators against human rights abuse charges.

In 2011, Ron Paul Institute Executive Director registered a website called the Daily Putin. McAdams has been very outspoken in his criticism of US foreign from a Russia centric point of view.

By any account, Kucinich has joined the chorus of Pro-Putin people in the United States by blaming the United States for Russia’s invasion of Crimea, advocating for Georgian Breakaway regions with McAdams and Lozansky and his constant attempts to ensure Assad stays in power in Syria.

More recently, Kucinich has touted the Conventional Kremlin line, siding with Trump. He called the Trump campaign’s infamous meeting with Russian agents “nothing,” praised Trump’s inauguration speech as “unifying” and “great,” and has spouted the Trump lines about the Deep State trying to destroy his presidency. His twitter reads like any right wing talk show hosts would when talking about the election.

Meeting with Putin in Moscow

According to a 2018 article Reuters, the Center for the National Interest arranged meetings in 2015 between Maria Butina and Alexander Torshin, then the Russian Central Bank deputy governor and Stanley Fischer, then Federal Reserve vice chairman, and Nathan Sheets, then Treasury undersecretary for international affairs. Two months earlier, in February 2015, Dimitri Simes, head of the Center for the National Interest of met with Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Council on Foreign Relations

Dimitri Simes was a member of the Council on Foreign Relations as of 2009.

“What Would Nixon Do on Cuba?”

In July 2008 the Nixon Center in Washington convened a forum entitled “What Would Nixon Do on Cuba?”

Panelists included Nixon Center President Dimitri Simes, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow Julia Sweig, former Bush administration senior National Security Council official Flynt Leverett, and former Colin Powell aide Lawrence Wilkerson. Steve Clemon was also involved.