‘The opportunity was missed long before Biden took office’: Why US–Russia tensions persist despite shared human instincts

In an era when nuclear deterrence is no longer an abstract theory and the relationship between the US and Russia increasingly resembles a game without rules, it is important to hear the opinion of people who know the political systems of both countries inside out. 

Dimitri Simes is one of the few political analysts whose very life forms a bridge between the two superpowers. Born in Moscow, he later emigrated to the United States and spent decades working within the US foreign policy establishment. Simes served as a foreign policy adviser to former US President Richard Nixon, who appointed him president of the Nixon Center for Peace and Freedom (now known as the Center for the National Interest), a position Simes held until 2022. He advised the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations on building relationships with the USSR and later Russia. In 2016, he was actively involved in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

In 2018, Simes became a TV host on Russian television. Despite US sanctions against his employer, he continued working on Russian television and acquired Russian citizenship in October 2022. In 2023, he moderated a plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin participated. 

Simes is familiar with the intellectual and political circles of both the US and Russia, and his insights have been shaped by that knowledge. 

In this interview, Simes reflects on why the rivalry between Russia and the US is structural rather than situational, how America itself is evolving – demographically, culturally, and politically, why nuclear weapons have resurfaced in strategic calculations, and what role Trump plays in the new global landscape.