Garry Kasparov, the Chess Grand Master critical of the Russian government and billionaires

Garry Kasparov (58 years old) is not just a Chess Grand Masteralthough this is enough to give him world fame, as he has the record of having been the number 1 player in the world for the longest time, between 1984 and 2005. He is also president of the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) and supporter of the American organization Renew Democracy Initiativededicated to defending liberal democracy in that and other countries.

He is also the administrator of a very active account of Twitter in which he shares his strong opinions on the actions of the Russian government and President Vladimir Putin, many of which are in his latest book (he is the author of more than twenty, most of them on chess), Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the enemies of the free world must be stopped. The title is a nod to the HBO series Game of Thrones.

In it, he says, he has answered many of the questions that are being asked about Russia and Ukraine today. “I was hoping it would be history by now, but thanks to Putin and the apathy of the free world, it is still current news,” she wrote recently.

The activist, who in March 2010 signed the Russian opposition’s open letter entitled Putin must goappeared this Monday, February 28, in an interview with PBS host Margaret Hoover to talk about what he calls Putin’s failed invasion of Ukraine. “The moment the dictatorship shows its weaknesses in the eyes of its subjects, that is the end”he pointed.

Kasparov has been arrested in Russia on several occasions for his political activism, albeit for a few days or hours. He has not returned to his country since 2013 (he lives in New York), and in 2014 he obtained Croatian citizenship. He is one of the defenders of the recognition of the Armenian genocide. His mother was Armenian, and his father a Russian Jew. He was born in Baku, which then belonged to the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic, and today is part of the Republic of Azerbaijan, a sovereign country.

Based on questions from his readers and followers, the sports-science champion has created a list called Stop Putin, and ensures that all its items are being fulfilled. The latest of these is that Putin is being isolated, in a way that Russian citizens cannot ignore, despite the avalanche of propaganda that will grow more desperate every day. “The price of removing Putin will be high, because it has risen every time he has gone unpunished before. Russians, Americans and Europeans will pay for it. But Ukraine is paying in blood, and its sacrifice must not be in vain.”

Among Kasparov’s recommendations for the current moment, the following stand out:

• Support Ukraine militarily, immediately. “All weapons, intelligence, cyber data.”
• Bankrupt Putin’s war machine. Freeze and seize Russian financesthose of the president and his circle.
• Throw Russia out of every international institution and financial, including Interpol.
• Call all ambassadors to Russia. “There is no point in talking. The unified message should be: stop or be completely isolated”.
• Block all items propaganda of Putin.
• Expose and act against Putin’s sponsors in the world. “Press charges. Ask the owners and advertisers of news networks that give platform to Putin like (Tucker) Carlson why they do it.”
• replace the russian oil and gas. “Put pressure on OPEC, increase production, reopen Keystone. You can’t save the planet if you don’t save the people on it.”
• Recognize that there will be a cost. “We have waited too long, the price is high, but it will only continue to rise.”

In addition, he has asked not to ignore the “political column” of ‘Putinists’ from both the far right and the far left of the US, “including Trump and his supporters. They may have the right to support a dictator’s brutal war in order to criticize Biden, but it is disgusting and un-American. Do not forget”.

If Putin falls, what will be the way? A million Russians in Red Square, a coup by the military or security force, the rebellion of the oligarchs… “All of the above,” says Kasparov. “It should be apparent that Putin is an obstacle to his goals, be they power, freedom or prosperity”.

Dictators, Kasparov explains, rule by fear and the threat and promise that any other alternative will be worse. But that can change. “Don’t give Putin a way out, give Russia a way out after Putinto the Russians who will abandon him for the good of the nation and the world.”

What about the Russian oligarchs? This is the name given to the businessmen of the former Soviet republics who accumulated wealth rapidly during the era of Russian privatization, after the fall of the Soviet Union, during the 1990s.

“If someone manages billions of dollars or works for a dictator, they and their families can live the good life in the free world,” while hiring spokesmen and lawyers in the West to bend the laws and allow them to continue trading. “No more. They are war criminals in the light of day,” says Kasparov, who believes that laws should be fixed and written to protect open societies from such invasions. “The dirty money, propaganda, fraternization and normalization of the emissaries of authoritarianism must end”. (I)