Garry Kasparov's Blog, page 18

Kasparov in Vilnius: Putin’s dictatorship won’t survive defeat | Lithuanian Radio and TV | May 20, 2022

I’m not saying every politician should play chess or that every Grandmaster would make a good politician, but in @VCmilyte, Lithuania made a brilliancy. Thank you for hosting me and others who dream and work for a free Russia. https://t.co/w5bSc4CsmW

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 20, 2022

In Vilnius to meet with Lithuanian leaders and my colleagues in the Russian Anti-War Committee and Free Russia Forum. Global security demands Ukraine to win and Putin to fall. https://t.co/tAUH1Fg4iN

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 20, 2022

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

By Milena Andrukaitytė, BNS

“Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess grandmaster and opposition activist, says Russia is losing the war in Ukraine and Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship will not survive a defeat.

During a visit to Vilnius, New York-based Kasparov met with Lithuanian Parliament Speaker Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen, who is also a chess grandmaster, to discuss the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

The Russian opposition figure told reporters on Friday that the two reminisced about “our chess youth”, but mostly spoke about “games without rules” in international politics.

“In fact, the task of international politics now is to make those who do not follow the rules follow them, because there are international obligations, rules, and the fact that Putin could go unpunished for many years has led to the situation that we have now,” he said.

Kasparov noted that, unlike a chess game, Russia’s war against Ukraine cannot end in a draw.

“There is no draw in war. This is a war that will end either in Putin’s victory, which is unlikely, or a victory for Ukraine and all of us, and we are looking at what the consequences will be for the world, for Russia, when Ukraine achieves victory,” he said.

“The Russian public does not yet understand that the war is already heading towards defeat and Putin’s dictatorship will not survive defeat. The Ukrainian flag in Sevastopol is the beginning of Russia’s liberation from Putinism, and the most important thing now is to help Ukraine win.”

According to Kasparov, sanctions on Russia should remain in place until it compensates Ukraine for war damage and those guilty of war crimes are brought to justice.

War in Ukraine / AP

The Russian opposition activist believes that the war will not last and that “the situation should be resolved this year”.

“Even if someone says the sanctions are not working, this is going to take time, because the sanctions are actually stifling the Russian economy, and no Russian government can survive if the sanctions continue,” he said.

“Russia is now a country that has fallen out of the global political and economic process, and even its closest allies, the neighbouring dictatorships, have retreated because they do not want to be part of this losing coalition.”

“Putin is alone, and it seems to me that the most important thing is to keep the sanctions in place until Ukraine wins, reparations are paid and war criminals are tried, which will lead to an inevitable regime change.”

In Kasparov’s opinion, Russia will not survive the war “in its current size” and some of its territories will secede, as the Kremlin’s defeat in Ukraine will act as a catalyst for processes that are already under way.

In Vilnius on Friday, Kasparov is taking part in a conference organised by the Free Russia Forum to discuss the consequences of the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine for Russia and Europe.

Participants of Friday’s forum include other Russian opposition figures such as Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Dmitry Gudkov, Yevgeny Kiselev, Leonid Nevzlin, Ilya Ponomaryov, and Konstantin Eggert.”

Meeting with Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki | May 18, 2022

A pleasure to meet Polish prime minister Mateusz Morawiecki today. We discussed helping Ukraine against Putin’s war, and not repeating the mistakes of the past. https://t.co/FrfWe4imUT pic.twitter.com/hFYWuj3N4I

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 18, 2022

𝗚𝘂𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝗻 𝗨𝗸𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗲, 𝗲𝗻 𝗱𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘁 |

« Je tiens à préciser que, en cas d’attaque contre la Suède et la Finlande pendant leur processus d’adhésion [à l’OTAN], la Pologne leur viendra en aide », a déclaré le premier ministre polonaishttps://t.co/j5h8lG09ag

— Le Monde (@lemondefr) May 19, 2022

Poland’s prime minister has just declared that in case of a military threat to Sweden or Finland, during their NATO accession process, Poland would come to their help.

— mswierczynski (@mswierczynski1) May 19, 2022

This is No Time to Go Wobbly on Russia | WSJ Op-Ed | May 16, 2022

The West welcomed Putin and offered him 2nd and 3rd chances. Now Ukrainians are fighting for their lives and their nation, and for the free world. Let it not be as a proxy, but as a partner. My new op-ed:
https://t.co/ewCp5hKGP8

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) May 17, 2022

This article is a reprint. You can read the original at the Wall Street Journal.

By Garry Kasparov

“Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine has again been scaled back amid courageous Ukrainian resistance and international support in the form of weapons, financial aid and sanctions against Russia, Mr. Putin and his oligarch mafia.

As pleased as I am by this, it’s hard not to be wistful about what might have been—and how many lives would have been saved—had such actions been taken to deter Mr. Putin years ago.

Instead, we have a conflict with global ripples affecting everything from Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and gas to the food supply of several African nations. This is the high price we must pay to stop Mr. Putin now to avoid an even higher price later—the eternal lesson of appeasement.

There are still signs that some Western leaders haven’t yet learned that isolating Mr. Putin and responding to him with strength is the only way to make lasting progress. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke last week about the need to negotiate with Mr. Putin, to give him face-saving off-ramps. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin called his Russian counterpart Friday to urge a cease-fire, potentially leading to the sort of “frozen conflict” Mr. Putin loves because he simply ignores the restrictions while consolidating and rearming.

I’ve long said that Mr. Putin is a Russian problem and must be removed by Russians. But the West needs to stop helping him. Every phone call that legitimizes his authority, every cubic meter of gas and every barrel of oil imported from Russia is a lifeline to a dictatorship that is shaking for the first time.

If the goal is to save Ukrainian lives, as Western leaders say, then the only way to do it is to arm Ukraine with every weapon President Volodymyr Zelensky wants as quickly as possible. A cease-fire that leaves Russian forces on Ukrainian soil would only allow Mr. Putin to continue his genocide and mass deportations under cover, as he’s been doing since he first invaded in 2014.

There are also those who openly take Mr. Putin’s side even now. Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is blocking a European Union ban on Russian oil imports, a supply that is putting tens of billions of dollars every month into Mr. Putin’s war machine. Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is threatening to disrupt Finland’s and Sweden’s accession into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, although it’s likely he’s looking to gain something for himself, as usual. In the U.S., Sen. Rand Paul has held up a new emergency financial-aid package to Ukraine—money, by the way, that would mostly be spent with American suppliers.

On May 9, President Biden signed the first lend-lease bill since World War II to speed aid and armaments to Ukraine. It was perfectly timed for Russia’s Victory Day, the annual celebration of the Nazis’ defeat, which has been turned into a perversion of patriotism that frames anyone or any nation that opposes Mr. Putin as a “fascist.” The real fascism is in the mirror as hundreds of thousands of Russians fleeing for the exits realize.

As for the 144 million Russians remaining in Mr. Putin’s police state bombarded with increasingly toxic propaganda for more than two decades, they have hard choices to make as Mr. Putin’s facade of stability crumbles and defeat in Ukraine looms. A dozen recent attacks on Russian military-recruiting offices are an indication of what might be coming.

The original Lend-Lease Act of 1941 allowed the Soviet Union to fend off Hitler’s invasion. Now the army boot is on the other foot if the U.S. reclaims its honorable heritage as the arsenal of the free world to help Ukraine defeat Mr. Putin’s invasion.

The bill is also a sign that Mr. Biden is finally shaking off the legacy of his days as vice president, the crucial period when Mr. Putin went from aspiring autocrat to full-blown dictator as the free world sat on its collective hands. When Mr. Putin invaded Georgia in 2008, Western leaders said it was better to maintain economic and political ties rather than punish him. This is the engagement policy we were told would eventually liberalize Russia—and China—by tying it to the free world.

Barack Obama epitomized the trend. As a candidate, under pressure from John McCain’s campaign, he condemned Mr. Putin’s incursion into Georgia. But President Obama was quick to make clear to Mr. Putin and other dictators that America would be leading any remaining freedom agenda from behind. The now-infamous “reset” renewed Mr. Putin’s credentials as he cracked down on the vestiges of Russian civil society. In a 2012 debate, Mr. Obama’s mocked Republican challenger Mitt Romney for stating, accurately, that Russia was America’s top geopolitical foe.

This attitude led to 2014, when Mr. Putin was emboldened enough to cast off any democratic trappings in Russia, invade Ukraine, and 2016, when he interfered in British and U.S. elections. In Europe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel pushed ahead with the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, increasing dependence on Russian energy when the opposite was needed. Now it’s being done abruptly and painfully. Perhaps Mr. Obama and Ms. Merkel could tour Kyiv together to see the damage they helped cause and to apologize to the Ukrainian people.

Mr. Putin’s corrupt and incompetent military is good only at brutality and massacring civilians, but has had eight years to entrench in the occupied east that Ukraine’s forces are now approaching. We will see how committed Ukraine’s allies really are as the war moves into a new phase in which defense is not enough. Will they help Ukraine win, to destroy Mr. Putin’s war machine, and to restore all Ukrainian territory? Will they keep sanctions in place to increase domestic pressure on Mr. Putin and to let his mafia know that there is no way back to the civilized world for them and their families while Mr. Putin is in power?

The free world that won the Cold War is remembering how to fight and rediscovering the values that give meaning to the fight. That’s bad news for Mr. Putin and the other dictators watching closely, from Beijing to Tehran to Caracas. Ukrainians are fighting for their lives and their nation, and for the free world. Let it not be as a proxy, but as a partner.

Mr. Kasparov is chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative.”

How Victory Day Showed Russia is Losing | Velshi on MSNBC | May 15, 2022

“The Russian army stumbled, and it’s failing,” says Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63). Putin’s lackluster May 9th celebration was, “the first indicator that Russia is looking for a face-saving operation rather than a decisive victory.” #Velshi pic.twitter.com/QHXn6KWgmU

— Velshi on MSNBC (@VelshiMSNBC) May 15, 2022

The real exchange rate between crypto and freedom | Avast Blog | May 12, 2022

Listen to a fascinating conversation between @Kasparov63 and Avast CISO @jayabaloo on how private-sector cybersecurity and cryptocurrencies will shape the future of privacy. https://t.co/gbeWH7qnwc

— Avast (@Avast) May 13, 2022

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

By Garry Kasparov

“Listen to Garry Kasparov talk with Avast CISO Jaya Baloo on how private-sector cybersecurity and cryptocurrencies will shape the future of privacy.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital art (including, I proudly admit, my own) are offering people the chance to tell their stories in innovative new ways. Cryptocurrencies have exploded, offering people around the world a new tool to use for investments and financial transactions, free from government control. And on the other side of the regulatory spectrum, even central banks are thinking about the future of digital currency and digital wallets. But with all this change, have we had the chance to stop and consider what this new digital reality will mean for the future of privacy?

The role of new digital realities and crypto will play in the future of privacy

In this latest episode of Garry on Lockdown, I discuss with Jaya Baloo, CISO at Avast, the status quo of security in cyberspace, and the role our new digital realities – and crypto – in particular will play in shaping the future of privacy. Although the episode was recorded before Putin’s second invasion of Ukraine began, this war (and the hybrid war combining conventional and cyber weapons that authoritarians have been waging against democracies everywhere for over a decade now) only reinforce how this story is more relevant now than ever before.

Our new virtual technologies are tools and, just like any other tools, they offer opportunities and progress, but also hurt, harm, and potential dangers to guard against. Just as work-from-home allowed people all over the world to keep doing their jobs while protecting themselves and their loved ones from a deadly pandemic, it also opened up a billion new points of attack and vulnerabilities in cybersecurity. Suddenly, the ransomware attacks you’ve only been reading about in the news may hit home when a cyberattack shuts down your local hospital, or infiltrates your email inbox. Billions of IoT devices flood the markets which consumers happily buy for cheap prices, uninformed about the security vulnerabilities they may come with.

Crypto can help solve security issues. At the same time, the rise of cryptocurrencies offers just as many new complications for firms and individuals trying to adapt to this new reality while doing good for the world. I’ll admit that, like many of you, I too was skeptical of crypto at first, but the more I learned about the technology, the more I realized its importance, especially for those living under authoritarian governments.

Cryptocurrencies helping dissidents – but also dictators?

In fact, I was won over when experts at the Human Rights Foundation I chair showed me how cryptocurrency, free from government interference, can be a powerful tool for dissidents on the frontlines of freedom all over the world. If you’re supporting a dissident in Venezuela, how can you get them the resources they need to speak out against a tyrannical regime? What’s the currency you use to avoid government seizures and persecution?

At the same time, just as dissidents use crypto to avoid government repression, some have asked me whether dictators may use crypto to avoid foreign sanctions. With Russia’s leading banks locked out by Western sanctions, are Russian oligarchs turning to digital cryptocurrencies?

Join Jaya and I as we discuss all this, and more, in the new episode of Garry on Lockdown.

Please note that this video was filmed prior to the onset of the war in Ukraine. The information presented in the video reflects the events taking place before February 24, 2022.”

SuperBet Chess Classic, Dialogue with Romanian Foreign Minister | Romania Trip | May 5, 2022

Glad to receive @Kasparov63 in #Bucharest today, for an open & in-depth discussion on the severe impact of RU aggression against #Ukraine. Reaffirmed ’s unwavering condemnation of RU’s unjustified & unprovoked war, support for #HumanRights, #Democracy & solidarity with pic.twitter.com/HLKcLDvEPm

— Bogdan Aurescu (@BogdanAurescu) May 5, 2022

I enjoyed my dialogue with Minister Aurescu, as well as the chance to see the Superbet Chess Classic kick off in Bucharest.

Garry Kasparov, la TVR: Problema cu dictatorii este că ei nu se schimbă | Stirile TVR | May 4, 2022

Watch the original video on YouTube.

‘Putin is Bluffing’ Garry Kasparov on Putin’s Nuclear Threat | Piers Morgan Uncensored | May 4, 2022

Russian chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov joined Piers to discuss the “fascist regime” under Vladimir Putin and whether he’ll ever return to his homeland.@Kasparov63 | @piersmorgan | #PiersUncensoredhttps://t.co/qQ7MXr5BTj

— Piers Morgan Uncensored (@PiersUncensored) May 4, 2022

You can watch the original clip on YouTube.

Outspoken Putin critic Garry Kasparov says Ukraine is just Putin’s first stop | NPR | April 30, 2022

Our host @nprscottsimon speaks with former chess champion and Russian President Vladimir #Putin‘s outspoken critic, @Kasparov63, about the #RussiaUkraineWar. https://t.co/PtzY691k9O https://t.co/uD452ElI1r

— Weekend Edition (@NPRWeekend) April 30, 2022

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

By Scott Simon

“Scott Simon speaks with former chess champion and Russian President Vladimir Putin’s outspoken critic, Garry Kasparov, about the conflict in Ukraine after an event at Goucher College in Maryland.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Garry Kasparov, the chess grandmaster, has a new strategic goal. He wants the world to defeat dictators, beginning with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

GARRY KASPAROV: The price of stopping a dictator always goes up every day with every delay, with every hesitation.

SIMON: Garry Kasparov is 59 now and learned to play in the Young Pioneers Palace in Baku, Azerbaijan, when it was part of the former Soviet Union. He retired as the highest-rated player in the world in 2005. He was beaten and arrested by Russian police for protesting in front of the courthouse where the women of the punk band Pussy Riot were on trial in 2012. He’s now a writer and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and lives in New York, spends a lot of time traveling the world, warning about what he sees as the threat of Putin’s Russia to democracy everywhere. We caught up with Garry Kasparov as he spoke to a group at Goucher College in Maryland on Wednesday night.

KASPAROV: When the Cold War was won back in 1991, we forgot a simple thing, that the evil doesn’t die. It grows back through the cracks of our apathy.

SIMON: After his appearance, we told him how people in the seats around us saw the water bottle put on stage for him and thought about Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who was poisoned through his water bottle. Other dissidents have been shot, pushed from windows or poisoned with radioactive substances.

KASPAROV: I’m happy my wife was not here because she gets really nervous when she hears journalists, you know, repeating this question. We all know the risks. She’s responsible not only for me but for our kids. Our daughter – she’s 15 1/2. And our son will be 7 this summer. And she also knows that I am who I am. So I have to do it, and I can make a difference.

SIMON: Garry Kasparov believes that severe Western sanctions should have been applied after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 and the next year, when Russian planes supported the Assad regime in Syria during that country’s civil war.

KASPAROV: It’s the, again, going backward. It’s Syria, and it’s Crimea. Crimea was the turning point, I think in Putin’s mind. If he could annex the territory with no consequences because sanctions in 2014 just – and he – Putin was laughing at them. Then he could do whatever. I think the free world proved to be not just complacent but also too willing to compromise on our values.

SIMON: You don’t believe that Ukraine is actually his strategic goal?

KASPAROV: No. Ukraine is one of the very important stations on his road to change the world, the global security infrastructure as it has been functioning since World War II. And for Putin, Ukraine is one of the demonstrations that he could reshape the map, redraw the map. And he could replay the Cold War and restore the Russian imperial glory. And nobody could stand against him.

SIMON: I noticed tonight you made a point of telling the audience, no, no, I don’t want peace now. I want something different.

KASPAROV: I want peace, but I don’t want us to say the peace can be achieved by stopping the war. The peace can be achieved by destroying the source of war. And unless we eradicate the source of war, there will be no peace. So peace can be achieved only by Ukraine restoring its territorial sovereignty, including Crimea and Sevastopol, and reparations being paid. As we speak, a Ukrainian city is being bombarded by Russian planes, Russian missiles. Each of them can destroy half of the city. And only then we can talk about lasting peace.

SIMON: Mr. Kasparov believes the way the world has rallied to support Ukraine might deter the designs of other authoritarian regimes.

KASPAROV: And I also think that this is not just about Putin and Ukraine. That’s a signal to everybody else. By defending Ukraine, I hope we are defending Taiwan. We’re defending many other places in the world where dictators are just scratching their just – you know, their heads, thinking, maybe we can take it.

SIMON: Garry Kasparov told us that because of his fame he feels a special responsibility to speak out against Putin’s government.

KASPAROV: Because I think my country could do much better. And I know that it will take years, if not decades, to exonerate Russia from these crimes. And also, I believe that the war between freedom and tyranny will not end with Ukraine in battle. It will not end with the collapse of Putin’s regime, which I believe is inevitable. It’s a battle for our lifetime, and I hope Russia will be on the right side. Russia will stop being a permanent problem but could become part of the solution because we will be facing China. We will be facing other countries and looking at China, so-called Chinese model. And they will be challenging our way of life.

SIMON: The goal is not perfection, he says, but progress.

KASPAROV: We have a lot of work to do at home. That’s the message that I think people like myself can bring to Americans and the Europeans that, yes, with all imperfection of our life, you know, it’s still the only way to move forward because we know how to address the issues that are important for us, whether it’s social justice, racial justice.

SIMON: He says tyrants can no longer operate behind the shadow of an iron curtain.

KASPAROV: Now we know everything. We know about gulag in Xinjiang. We know about genocide of Uyghurs. We know about all the crimes committed around the world, and we have to make sure that we’ll be able to do more than mere talk.

SIMON: But we wanted to ask one more question of Garry Kasparov. Do you have a favorite Pussy Riot song?

KASPAROV: Look. It’s – Pussy Riot made their name not because of the chord of their songs.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “PUNK PRAYER”)

PUSSY RIOT: (Singing in non-English language).

SIMON: Garry Kasparov, the chess grandmaster and chair of the Human Rights Foundation, who hopes for a future when he and all Russians can be heard without fear. We caught up with him this week at Goucher College in Maryland.”

The Global Chessboard | Lecture at Goucher College | April 27, 2022

Many thanks for hosting me, @gouchercollege, and to all who attended and came up to say hello and to show support for a secure Ukraine, a safer world, and a free Russia. https://t.co/imAtNc3vhU

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) April 28, 2022

This event was a lecture at Goucher College. You can watch a recording on YouTube or learn more at the event website.

“THE ROBERT AND JANE MEYERHOFF VISITING PROFESSORSHIP SERIES PRESENTS: GARRY KASPAROV

Garry Kasparov is a Russian pro-democracy leader, global human-rights activist, business speaker and author, and former world chess champion.

This event is free to the public, and no registration is neccessary. A livestream will also be available.

We ask that all attendees wear N-95, KN95, or KF94 face masks indoors. Masks will be provided for attendees who do not have one. 

Born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the Soviet Union in 1963, Garry Kasparov became the under-18 chess champion of the USSR at the age of 12 and the world under-20 champion at 17. He came to international fame at the age of 22 as the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985. He defended his title five times, including a legendary series of matches against arch-rival Anatoly Karpov. Kasparov broke Bobby Fischer’s rating record in 1990 and his own peak rating record remained unbroken until 2013. His famous matches against the IBM super-computer Deep Blue in 1996-97 were key to bringing artificial intelligence, and chess, into the mainstream.

Kasparov’s was one of the first prominent Soviets to call for democratic and market reforms and was an early supporter of Boris Yeltsin’s push to break up the Soviet Union. In 1990, he and his family escaped ethnic violence in his native Baku as the USSR collapsed. In 2005, Kasparov, in his 20th year as the world’s top-rated player, retired from professional chess to join the vanguard of the Russian pro-democracy movement. In 2012, Kasparov was named chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation, succeeding Vaclav Havel. HRF promotes individual liberty worldwide and organizes the Oslo Freedom Forum. Facing imminent arrest during Putin’s crackdown, Kasparov moved from Moscow to New York City in 2013.

The U.S.-based Kasparov Chess Foundation nonprofit promotes the teaching of chess in education systems around the world. Its program already in use in schools across the United States, KCF also has centers in Brussels, Johannesburg, Singapore, and Mexico City. Garry and his wife, Daria, travel frequently to promote the proven benefits of chess in education and have toured Africa extensively.

Kasparov has been a contributing editor to The Wall Street Journal since 1991 and is a regular commentator on politics and human rights. He speaks frequently to business and political audiences around the world on technology, strategy, politics, and achieving peak mental performance. He is a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Oxford-Martin School with a focus on human-machine collaboration. He’s a member of the executive advisory board of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics and a Security Ambassador for Avast Software, where he discusses cyber security and the digital future. Kasparov’s book How Life Imitates Chess on strategy and decision-making is available in over 20 languages. He is the author of two acclaimed series of chess books, My Great Predecessors and Modern Chess. Kasparov’s 2015 book, Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped is a blend of history, memoir, and current events analysis.

Kasparov’s next book was Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins(May 2017). It details his matches against Deep Blue, his years of research and lectures on human and machine competition and collaboration, and his cooperation with the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford. He says:

“AI will transform everything we do and we must press forward ambitiously in the one area robots cannot compete with humans: in dreaming big dreams. Our machines will help us achieve them. Instead of worrying about what machines can do, we should worry more about what they still cannot do.””