Garry Kasparov's Blog, page 15

Kasparov calls on EU to allow entry for Russians condemning regime, but not tourists | The Baltic Times | September 2, 2022

This article is a reprint. You can read the original at The Baltic Times.

“VILNIUS – Garry Kasparov, a leading Russian opposition activist, has called on the European Union to stop issuing visas to Russian tourists but at the same time to create a mechanism allowing indefinite entry for those who condemn Russia’s hostilities and do not support the Kremlin.

“My proposals are very clear, we have discussed them during the Congress: there can be no tourism at times of war. Indeed, there was no tourism from Berlin to London back in 1942. Hence there shall be no tourist visas. However, it is necessary to give an opportunity to those who want to destroy Putin’s Russia. The front line should be one-way only: if you cross to another side, you stay there,” he told reporters on Friday after the end of the Congress of Free Russia, which was hosted by Vilnius.

Ways to restrict the flow of tourists from Russia on a regional level were now being discussed with representatives of the Baltic countries, Poland and Finland, which had decided to pursue such measures, Kasparov said.

Specifically, he mentioned a proposal for those seeking entry into the EU to sign a declaration condemning Russia’s actions and affirming Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“A declaration stating the acknowledgment of the criminal war, illegitimacy of Putin’s regime and, of course, recognition of Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Those people shall be given an opportunity to settle down in the free world,” the opposition activist said.

Such a declaration should be signed in public as this would make the person “a criminal in Putin’s Russia” who would face prosecution in his home country upon return, Kasparov explained.

“Of course, the declaration would only be the first step, it would not be a guarantee that their documents would be accepted. It’s just that those documents would not be accepted altogether without such a declaration. It is necessary to acknowledge these three conditions in public,” he added.

Kasparov stressed that the abovementioned countries were a specific “checkpoint” for Russians traveling farther to Europe, adding that he hoped that the United Kingdom could also join such a mechanism.

“As far as I understand, the conference in Prague [the informal meeting of EU foreign ministers] provided a possibility of a “regional solution”, i.e. to block tourism even if Spain or Italy issues visas – it will actually be no longer possible once Finland joins in,” he said.

The opposition activist agreed that the increased inflow of people from Russia entailed the risk of “some provocations”, which is why efforts were being made to negotiate a more specific mechanism of checks, which could be applied by officers of the said countries.

In Kasparov’s view, a ban on tourist visas would be fruitful as it would create additional problems inside Russia, in particular for the passive middle class.

“More so, it would finally explain to Russia’s middle class in Moscow and St Petersburg that it is necessary to pay for the war. It is important that they understand that the war is not just something they see on TV but it is the war they will have to pay for, too,” he added.

According to Kasparov, should the model proposed by Russian opposition activists be implemented, “there are all preconditions to expect” an increase in the flow of specialists, necessary for the functioning of Russia’s economy, who would leave Russia for the West.

“Those are IT specialists, engineers. It is also part of the plan how to make Russia’s economy bleed out,” he said.

According to him, at least half of the specialists who earlier left Russia to work in Western countries had to go back to Russia after the war broke out “just because there were no such programs”.

Kasparov stressed that, in the opposition’s view, this would also help in the future, after the war ended.

“If we expect certain developments to begin in Russia after Ukraine’s victory, it is important that those people, who are ready to fight in order to bring Russia back to the European community, could have clear conditions for the formation of their structures in Europe as early as today,” he added.

On Wednesday, EU foreign ministers agreed to suspend a 2007 visa facilitation agreement with Russia.

The measure does not mean a formal ban on tourist visas as requested by some of Russia’s EU neighbors, including Lithuania.

Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, Latvia and Poland have said they will look at ways to impose regional bans on Russian citizens.”

Конгресс свободной России | 31 августа | The Congress of Free Russia | August 31, 2022

I believe the replay of our segment begins here: https://t.co/qDG0hCTG7b https://t.co/AEMay1FOTw

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 31, 2022

 

Campus Polska 2022 | Warsaw | August 30, 2022

“At a time when so many politicians are clowns, a comedian turned out to be a hero!” https://t.co/ftz33hehhT

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 30, 2022

Inna, demokratyczna twarz Rosji. Autentyczny, uczciwy głos, nieskażony kremlowską propagandą. Przypomnienie, że Rosja to nie tylko Putin. Konkretny. Bezkompromisowy. Znakomity. Dziękuję @Kasparov63 za świetne spotkanie na #Campus2022. @Campus_Polska pic.twitter.com/05g0CojpVl

— Rafał Trzaskowski (@trzaskowski_) August 30, 2022

Winter is Here: We’re 6 Months In. Now What? | RDI | August 19, 2022

We’re six months into the war in Ukraine, now what? @UrielEpshtein and @Kasparov63 discuss what’s next for the Free World in this week’s Winter is Here podcast. #Russia #Ukraine https://t.co/XchAIKusj1

— Renew Democracy Initiative (@Renew_Democracy) August 19, 2022

This article is a reprint. You can listen to the podcast at the Renew Democracy Initiative.

“In this special episode of Winter is Here, Uriel and Garry take a step back to look at how we got here and how we can avoid the mistakes of the past. We highlight the importance of signaling mechanisms on the global stage, whether we can have an impact on Russian public support for the war, and how the Free World can deter Putin and other dictators moving forward.”

Fighting Hate From Home: Defending American Democracy | Anti-Defamation League | August 17, 2022

Today at 2pm ET. As has tragically been the case throughout history, Jews and other minorities are the first to suffer when democratic principles and policies come under attack. Register: https://t.co/LQ6fnqF8Bg https://t.co/PF50NNIZS1

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 17, 2022

“Extremism feeds on extremism” – @Renew_Democracy‘s Chairman @Kasparov63 on #FightingHateFromHome, hosted by the @ADL pic.twitter.com/S7lSGdfbGg

— Renew Democracy Initiative (@Renew_Democracy) August 17, 2022

This article is a reprint. You can read the original at the Anti-Defamation League.

“Join us to discuss “Defending American Democracy” with Garry Kasparov, who is a tireless advocate for individual liberty and civic engagement as the founder of the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI) and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, and Noor Greene, RDI’s director of strategy and operations and an expert on human rights whose work is informed by her experience in growing up in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Don’t miss this Fighting Hate from Home webinar on August 17 at 2 pm ET / 11 am PT.

The United States – the world’s greatest experiment in representative democracy — is threatened now by toxic polarization and the mainstreaming of extremism. With the risk greater than at any time since the Civil War, we need insights from those on the frontlines here and abroad. Can freedom movements abroad help us understand the threats we face?

In the midst of a larger ‘global recession’ for democracy, partisan divides in this country have been weaponized to support identity-based hatred and the normalization of extremist conspiracy theories, many of which are laced with antisemitism. This led to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol last year and our ADL experts are expecting more political violence and attempts to subvert upcoming elections. And, while the immediate and violent threats to our communities and our democracy come from the right, divisions that corrode democratic pluralism are showing up on the left as well, often manifesting in extreme identity politics and “cancel culture.”

ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt hosts this vital discussion with Garry Kasparov and Noor Greene for a lively examination of the disruption that we are facing, the hazard it presents for Jews and other vulnerable communities and what you can do to play a role in defending democracy.

Please sign up below to join us today. All registrants will be emailed a link to the recording to re-watch and share.”

Lead-Lag Live: Becoming the Greatest of All Time w/ Garry Kasparov | Twitter | August 15, 2022

I’m live now with @leadlagreport, talking my life, tech, and especially on Ukraine and the impact of Putin’s war on global economy and finance depending on the world’s response. Listen on Spaces now: https://t.co/rBcwomtrgE https://t.co/UFvAHyZMpK

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 15, 2022

“Job loss to tech could just be called human history. We live longer, better lives thanks to tech. If you “work like a machine” that’s bad, that’s a job that should be done by a machine. Use our intelligence, our creativity.” LIVE NOW: https://t.co/rBcwomtrgE

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 15, 2022

LIVE Q&A: “It’s apathy in Russia about the war on Ukraine, and negative sentiment is more about Putin’s failure to win. It’s sad, but that’s the state of “anti-war” in Russia now. Early protests were an insignificant fraction. Brave people, but tiny.” https://t.co/rBcwomtrgE

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) August 15, 2022

A man with a loaded AK-47 was arrested outside an Iranian journalist’s Brooklyn home | CNN | August 1, 2022

I’m glad my friend @AlinejadMasih is healthy and safe and that the police acted capably against what might have been a deadly situation. It appears Iran continues to export terror with impunity, even to the United States, not for the first time w Masih. https://t.co/XkQPPuli1P

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 31, 2022

This article is a reprint. You can read the original at CNN.

By Josh Campbell

“(CNN)A man armed with an AK-47-style rifle was arrested Thursday afternoon after law enforcement officials observed him behaving “suspiciously” in a Brooklyn neighborhood where Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad resides with her family.

Alinejad was targeted in an alleged kidnapping plot last year by Iranian nationals after speaking out against the Iranian regime. The indictment in that case alleged the plot was organized by an Iranian intelligence official, but Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied any involvement, calling the accusation “baseless and ridiculous,” according to semi-official Iranian state media.Alinejad said she was home Thursday when federal agents informed her about the armed individual.

4 Iranian nationals charged with alleged kidnapping plot of US journalist, court documents say“I was told by the FBI to ‘stay away from your home,'” Alinejad told CNN by phone Sunday. “I was shocked. I couldn’t even believe it. I was telling myself, ‘if I opened the door, what was I going to do?'”NYPD officers arrested Khalid Mehdiyev Thursday afternoon as he drove away from the Brooklyn neighborhood after he failed to stop at a stop sign, according to a federal criminal complaint obtained by CNN. It also said NYPD officers found he was driving without a valid license. Law enforcement officials later found a suitcase in the backseat of his vehicle containing an AK-47-style assault rifle loaded with a round in the chamber, an additional second magazine and $1,100 in $100 bills, according to the complaint.

Law enforcement found a suitcase containing a loaded AK-47-style rifle, a second magazine and $1,100 in the backseat of Mehdiyev’s vehicle, according to a criminal complaint.He is charged with possessing a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Mehdiyev is set to be back in court August 12. CNN has reached out to his attorney, Stephanie Marie Carvlin, for comment but has not heard back.Law enforcement officials say they saw Mehdiyev, a Yonkers resident, in the Brooklyn neighborhood on two occasions last week, Wednesday and Thursday, and also discovered that he’d been issued a parking ticket in the same neighborhood the weekend before, on July 23, according to the complaint.On Thursday morning Mehdiyev drove a gray Subaru Forester SUV with Illinois license plates and remained in the area for several hours where he “behaved suspiciously,” the complaint states. On one occasion, Mehdiyev got in and out of his car several times, ordered food delivery service to his car, and approached a home in the neighborhood — where Alinejad resides — peering inside the windows and attempting to open the front door, according to the complaint.Alinejad says she was on a Zoom call with Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, Garry Kasparov, and Venezuelan politician and opposition leader Leopoldo López when she found out about the armed individual.“I’m glad my friend @Alinejad Masih is healthy and safe and that the police acted capably against what might have been a deadly situation,” Kasparov tweeted from his verified account Sunday.The activist shared a security video on her official Twitter account of the man who she says federal agents told her was the same man arrested by police Thursday.“These are the scary scenes capturing a man who tried to enter my house in New York with a loaded gun to kill me,” she tweeted, although no gun can be seen in the image. “Last year the FBI stopped the Islamic Republic from kidnapping me. My crime is giving voice to voiceless people. The US administration must be tough on terror.”Alinejad says she has spoken monthly with federal agents since the alleged kidnapping attempt last year.“I really thought that the plot was over. I thought, ‘OK, I can focus on my job’ — which I am going to do, nothing is going to stop me,” she said.“I see this as the continuation of trying to keep Iranian women down,” the activist told CNN.Alinejad, who frequently shares photos and videos of what she says are “voiceless” Iranian women through her social media accounts, says Iranian officials recently warned her about continuing her activism.A spokesperson for Iran’s Headquarter for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice announced in July that anyone who sends videos to Alinejad regarding the hijab or commits other anti-government activities is subject to a sentence of up to 10 years in prison.“It’s the 21st century: Enough is enough,” Alinejad said. “I left my country, Iran, to be safe, to be the voice for voiceless people. That’s my crime. I want to enjoy freedom of expression as an American.”CNN’s Liam Rielly contributed to this report.”

Crypto Can Mean Freedom | Avast Blog | July 22, 2022

Cryptocurrency is easily misunderstood and maligned when defined as an investment, but it can mean freedom for people living in authoritarian regimes. My article for @Avast: https://t.co/CxwKF7NGpc

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 26, 2022

This article is a reprint. You can read the original at the Avast Blog.

By Garry Kasparov

“Garry Kasparov’s take on cryptocurrencies’ pros and cons in our digital lives.

Let me present a thought experiment: Imagine you are a dissident fighting for democracy in Venezuela. The government controls access to financial services through state institutions. Those loyal to the regime have access to the nation’s scant resources. Dissidents like yourself are locked out. The government monitors your every move, tracking what financial transactions you are allowed to make and chasing your footprints (both digital and physical) everywhere they can. What’s more, the government even manipulates the national currency, printing money at whim and trying –– like Nero declaring war against Neptune –– to wage war against economics. What can you do? How can you survive and continue to speak out?

But this is not merely a thought experiment. This is real life, for both dissidents and ordinary people all around the world. One answer to this problem is cryptocurrency. For countless people around the world, in an age of ever greater control and surveillance, crypto means freedom.

Crypto offers a way around dictators and surveillance

This is the fundamental lesson I tried to share when I joined Avast at Coindesk’s Consensus 2022 Conference in Austin this June.

Growing up in the Soviet Union, I saw firsthand that the human desire for control has no limits. When I first left the country to play chess internationally, I was ‘escorted’ everywhere by Soviet guards whose sole job was to control my every word, action, or thought. Tyrants who seek to control every aspect of their subjects’ lives are not boogeymen from Brothers Grimm tales, but instead, a reflection of the human capacity for evil. Solzhenitsyn’s Gulag Archipelago is not ancient history — it’s the reality for dissidents like Alexei Navalny today.

Because we cannot change human nature, we need to create instruments and institutions that promote freedom and give ordinary people everywhere the chance to escape totalitarian control. As I shared on the main stage in Austin during my conversation with Coindesk’s Emily Parker, for many around the world, crypto means freedom. I know what it’s like to be locked out of traditional institutions by an authoritarian regime, and I understand the value of a financial instrument free from a dictator’s reach.

Crypto offers freedom for dissidents living under government surveillance. Crypto also offers freedom for ordinary people, barred from financial services for any number of discriminatory reasons. In the form of security and privacy, crypto offers freedom for those who want to escape the uncertainties of unscrupulous dictators and central banks.

My personal crypto journey 

I began my journey with cryptocurrency when I first heard about it a decade ago from experts at our Human Rights Foundation. At the time, we were trying to address the very problem I laid out at the beginning of this piece –– how best to support dissidents in places around the world where the rule of law is weak and access to financial services determined by your loyalty to a regime. Cryptocurrency turned out to be the safest bet.

But it’s not just high-profile activists or dissidents stalked by government agents. A female activist in Afghanistan recently told Alex Gladstein, CSO at our Human Rights Foundation, that cryptocurrency is one way women in Afghanistan can try to retain rights. When the Taliban stormed the nation, they barred women from opening bank accounts and even from using cash. The men kept Afghanistan’s women isolated and powerless. But crypto was a revelation because it allowed the women a way out –– a way to escape the guns and totalitarian control of the Taliban.

Crypto as a secure tool against hyperinflation 

Lastly, crypto offers freedom from the precarity of national currencies set by dictators. It’s certainly true that in most of the developed world, where the rule of law is strong and clear walls of separation divide elected politicians from central bank economists, that many forms of cryptocurrency may be less stable at times than fiat currency. I’m not trying to offer investment advice, but it may surprise you to learn that in many parts of the world, crypto is actually more stable than the wild swings and uncertainties of national currencies. Despite the volatility of cryptocurrency, it is often a safer bet than other options ordinary people can access in countries suffering from hyperinflation, for example, or whose currencies are tied to the whims of dictators.

Watch out for crypto scams

As I told conference attendees on the main stage, and in my slew of interviews throughout the weekend, cryptocurrency is morally agnostic. Like all technology, it is just a tool: one that humans can choose to use for good or evil. Like many new technologies, it’s vulnerable to abuse because conventions and regulations haven’t caught up. Scammers and get rich quick schemes have been around for thousands of years, so we have to use our common sense and stay up to date when diving into these new worlds. I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Avast is one of the companies trying to help people navigate this cyber Wild West. Avast’s teams work 24/7 to shut down crypto scams before innocents get hurt, to warn individuals and companies against the dangers of malware or ransomware, and to maximize the benefits of cryptocurrency while minimizing ways that bad actors can manipulate it.

And after all the interviews and talks with crypto enthusiasts from across the industry in Austin, I had the chance to sign some books and get in a ten-board chess simul. I’m an amateur now and have been retired from pro chess for 17 years, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take it easy on our guests!

Crypto’s potential to be used as a freedom toolkit

The Consensus Conference in Austin showed me how far the crypto community has come. Even in a period of turmoil in the broader industry, interest is very high in all aspects. Walking around the convention center, talking to countless organizations about the intersection of human rights and cryptocurrency, I reflected that crypto is no longer the fringe concept that we’ve been discussing at the Human Rights Foundation for so long. If used wisely, it has become a welcome addition to the freedom toolkit.”

2022 SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia | Grand Chess Tour | July 18-25

The biggest news at the 2022 SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia was made off the board, with world champion Magnus Carlsen confirming he would not defend his title next year. (He’s not retiring, just not playing the WCh match.) #GrandChessTour https://t.co/y2aH7v3Tdt

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 20, 2022

Ukrainian young talents came to Zagreb by invitation of the Kasparov Chess Foundation. They took part in the simultaneous exhibition organized by #grandchesstour and played vs the best chess players, including World Champion Magnus Carlsen and 13th World Champion @Kasparov63 pic.twitter.com/7L7Pm5EA6b

— Kasparov Chess (@Kasparov_Chess) July 20, 2022

Congrats to Magnus on an impressive win. The crown may weigh heavily but there is always room for more trophies! My thanks and admiration to the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz organizers in Zagreb. #GrandChessTour https://t.co/TfSkp5BilE

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 24, 2022

Daria and I Speaking with Croatian PM Plenkovic | July 21, 2022

Thank you PM @AndrejPlenkovic for hosting my wife Daria and I to discuss Russian aggression in Ukraine. It’s great that my adopted country of Croatia has been such a staunch supporter of liberty and against Putin’s brutal dictatorship. https://t.co/6oQBprkV3Z

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) July 22, 2022