This is John Batchelor. Conversation with my colleague Josh Rogin. He writes global opinions for the Washington Post.

The man's name is Dimitri Symes. He's a popular celebrity in Russian TV. He used to be a popular celebrity in American TV in the late 20th century.

He's a Russian expert. He's born in Russia. He gave up his Soviet citizenship when he came to America in the 1970s.

He's now returned to Russia, lives in Moscow with his wife,

and he's regained his Russian citizenship.

The Department of Justice has moved to charge him with money laundering

and other offenses such as being an antique dealer for a sanctioned oligarch.

However, Josh makes an additional point about going after a and more of this later. Money laundering is against the law and if he and sanctions busting is against the law and if he's convicted on those that's one thing but

there's a larger issue here this is what I wrote in the column in the Washington Post, which is that, you know, once we start, you know, using our limited law enforcement resources to go after journalists, even propagandists, who are not actually interfering in the United States

political system but are just odious or we may not like what they're saying

that that's a slippery slope towards the kind of expansion of the war against foreign influence that we should think about him and actually try to avoid.