Dimitri Simes - American political scientist of Soviet origin. In the US, he worked as an advisor to President Nixon's foreign policy, now heads the Nixon Center and publisher of the magazine "The National Interest". In his new book, Dimitri Simes analyzes Vladimir Putin's policy in recent years. With certain reservations he considers it justified, and the actions of the Obama administration, on the other hand, hasty and often go beyond common sense. Separately, he examines the policy of the European Union, which behaves as if Russia is part of it, to assess the situation there in terms of democratic standards in the EU. Meanwhile, Russia has its own traditions and peculiarities of development, so trying to "teach Russia to live" by Western standards is, at least, unwise.