Washington threatens Moscow-based US citizen with 60 years in jail

Charges come after the FBI raided Dimitri Simes’ property in Virginia

Federal prosecutors have charged Dimitri Simes and his wife Anastasia with conspiracy, money laundering, and evasion of US sanctions on Russia.

Simes, 76, led the Center for the National Interest in Washington from 1994 to 2022, when he stepped down and moved to Moscow. He has since hosted a political TV show called ‘The Great Game’ on Channel One. 

The indictment unsealed on Thursday alleges that Simes and his wife violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and engaged in money laundering of the profits. They face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each of the three counts, if convicted.

Simes has been accused of receiving “over $1 million, a personal car and driver, a stipend for an apartment in Moscow, Russia, and a team of 10 employees,” for his work as a producer and presenter at Channel One. The network was sanctioned by the US in May 2022 for “being owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of” the Russian government.

“Dimitri and Anastasia Simes maintain a home in Huntly, Virginia. They remain at large and are believed to be in Russia,” the Department of Justice said.

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Federal agents raided the Virginia property two weeks ago, reportedly seizing some artwork. In another indictment unsealed on Thursday, the DOJ charged Anastasia Simes, 55, of conspiring to violate US sanctions by allegedly buying art for a man named Aleksandr Udodov, described as an “oligarch.”

Udodov was blacklisted in February 2023 for “operating or having operated in the management consulting sector” of the Russian economy.

Speaking to Sputnik last month, Simes called the raid “an attempt to intimidate” him and others who might criticize the policies of the US government and the “deep state” in Washington. Noting that he and his wife had not been in the US since October 2022, Simes said the government was trying “to create a situation in which I will be unable to return.”

“They want to make sure that I would not come to the US, and they want to block any attempt to have a Russian-American dialogue,” Simes said at the time.

Charges against the Simes’ come a day after the US government accused RT and several other Russian outlets of seeking to “undermine confidence in the United States’ election processes and institutions” ahead of the November 5 presidential election.

US sanctions have forced former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter – whose New York home was also raided by the FBI last month – to end his contracts with RT and Sputnik.