Garry Kasparov's Blog, page 21
March 31, 2022
Гарри Каспаров: «Путина остановит только сила» | March 31, 2022
@Kasparov63 a must listen interview for everybody who can understand Russian. German, French and English translations urgently needed. Bottom line: Putin received irreversible damage from #Ukraine. The West must finish him off by: 1/2 https://t.co/TZ8MO5bCKF
— Shota Gvineria (@gvineria) March 31, 2022
You can see the original interview on YouTube.
Stay Tuned with Preet Podcast Live | March 31, 2022
A nice night, thanks to @PreetBharara, @BenStiller, @AVindman and everyone for coming. https://t.co/PGkCfiWlCx
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) April 1, 2022
An incredible event discussing comedy, politics, and war with RDI board members Garry @Kasparov63 and @AVindman alongside @PreetBharara and @BenStiller for @cafedotcom’s Stay Tuned podcast. pic.twitter.com/EjN8fOoksU
— Renew Democracy Initiative (@Renew_Democracy) April 1, 2022
One Russian to another: What’s the news?
—We’re at war with NATO!
How’s it going?
—We’ve lost 15,000 soldiers, 100 aircraft, and 600 tanks.
How about NATO?
—Oh, they haven’t started fighting yet. https://t.co/BeCLBdav3V
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) April 1, 2022
You can see more information about this event at the Stay Tuned with Preet Podcasts’s Cafe Page.
March 30, 2022
Kasparov on CNN’s Situation Room | CNN | March 30, 2022
.@Kasparov63: Putin’s strategic goal is clear. He wants to destroy Ukraine. We should see “de-escalation” as just a tactical maneuver. One of Putin’s main character traits is lying. That’s why any statement we hear from the Kremlin, we have to assume it’s a lie, aimed to deceive. pic.twitter.com/wqyS8NK3FA
—
Paula Chertok
Media: @Kasparov63 to @wolfblitzer: “How would we think that after #Putin‘s 22 years in power, any of his cronies would dare bring bad news, risking his wrath? It’s more like a palace intrigue. They’re not interested in presenting a real picture. More in protecting their backs.” pic.twitter.com/29q04gUGuU
— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) March 30, 2022
March 29, 2022
Now’s The Time To Support The Russian Opposition | Kyiv Post | March 29, 2022
This article is a reprint. You can see the original at the Kyiv Post.
By Jason Jay Smart
“The grounds for my persona non grata (i.e., formal decision to not allow me to enter the country) from the Russian Federation, in 2010, was per Article 27.1 of the Russian Immigration Law. It dictates that “a foreign citizen” “shall not be permitted to enter the Russian Federation if it is necessary to ensure the defense, or security, of the state…” Why was a mere 24-year-old American awarded this recognition?
Having declined my acceptance to do a PhD at St Petersburg State University, Russia (the alma mater of Vladimir Lenin, Dmitry Medvedev, and Vladimir Putin), I began working with the democratic opposition to the Putin Regime, via a US Government funded organization that supports the fostering of active democracies worldwide. Not surprisingly, the rebirth of democracy in Russia is not something that the Putin dictatorship, having ruled the Kremlin for 22 years, is excited to see.
Back then, many Westerners criticized Putin’s opposition as being a hopeless case as “Putin will die in power.” Using this logic, coupled with “but we do not want to upset the Kremlin,” the United States and European countries have dragged their feet to take the opposition seriously and to finance programs that could make a difference in driving the fate of Russia. Today, the eyes of the West are opening to the international threat of Putin.
Russia’s war in Ukraine has cost billions of dollars in just over four weeks. By contrast, financing for Russia’s democratic opposition is an investment that can produce a high return on investment, including the prevention of future wars.
There are two streams of work that we should vigorously support. First, we should offer direct assistance to organizations such as Garry Kasparov’s Free Russia Forum, which is the only venue for Russian activists to freely meet, and to plan for the construction of a democratic Russia. Events like this are critical so that there is a ready cadre of leaders to take the helm once there is political change in Moscow.
Second, we should increase funding for organizations that provide factual news to the Russian population (i.e., Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Current Time, etc.,). As Putin has turned-off Western social media platforms within his territory, it will be easier for Putin’s “news” services to manipulate the public. However, if we confront the Russian public with the “facts-on-the-ground” of the Kremlin’s corruption and how it wages war against Ukrainian civilians, we will see a decline in support for the Russian authorities.
There are urgent things to be addressed in Ukraine that must be front-and-center, but we ought to also consider the future. What is certain is that while Putin remains in power, there will be no stability. Change within Russia is the key for Ukrainian and Western security, and it is something that we can help to achieve.”
March 27, 2022
Putin ‘Cannot Remain in Power’ Line Was Right, Backpedaling Wrong: Kasparov | Newsweek | March 27, 2022
No free world leader should hesitate to state plainly that the world would be a far better place if Putin were no longer in power in Russia. A good way to make that come about is to say exactly that. Russia will be pariah until Putin is gone.
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 26, 2022
Concern about Biden’s statement about Putin not remaining in power is overblown. The real worry is his admin is not clear on what it hopes to achieve in supporting Ukraine. Without US leadership, the EU, NATO, and the rest will lose their nerve at the first opportunity. 1/13
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 28, 2022
This article is a reprint. You can read the original at Newsweek.
By Andrew Stanton
“Garry Kasparov, a Russian chess grandmaster who chairs the Human Rights Foundation, said the White House should not have walked back President Joe Biden‘s remark saying that Russian President Vladimir Putin should not remain in power.
During a speech in Warsaw, Poland, on Saturday, Biden said: “We will have a different future—a brighter future rooted in democracy and principle; hope and light, decency and dignity; of freedom of possibilities. For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.”
The White House quickly issued a statement clarifying that the president was not calling for a regime change in Russia, but instead was saying that Putin “cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.”
Kasparov wrote in a Twitter thread Saturday evening that Biden should have stuck by his remark, slamming Putin as a “dictator” who led Russia to “economic, demographic, and political ruin.”
“No free world leader should hesitate to state plainly that the world would be a far better place if Putin were no longer in power in Russia,” he wrote. “A good way to make that come about is to say exactly that. Russia will be pariah until Putin is gone.”
Kasparov has long been a vocal opponent of Putin and his invasion of Ukraine. He has not shied away from criticizing world leaders over their response to the Russian president, calling for them to take stronger actions against Putin including implementing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, according to Reuters. Earlier this month, he said world powers should send Russia “back to the stone age.”
On Saturday, the chess grandmaster accused the White House of “fumbling to apologize to a murderous dictator for speaking the truth,” calling the statement “pathetic.”
“No dictator is legitimate. Don’t backpedal when you are right and in the right. Don’t play diplomatic games with a mass murderer,” he wrote.
Kasparov is not the only person who said the White House should not have walked Biden’s comment back. During a panel discussion on Sunday on CNN‘s State of the Union, GOP strategist Scott Jennings said he “hated it that they walked it back, because it’s what we all believe.”
“Nobody in the United States wants Vladimir Putin to continue to run Russia, and nobody thinks and nobody should think that when this is over we can go back to like this never happened,” he said. “I don’t know how it’s going to end. We can’t go back to treating this guy like a legitimate world leader.”
Others, however, have condemned the comment from Biden, voicing concerns that it could escalate tensions with Russia. Senator Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, called the remark a “horrendous gaffe” during an interview with CNN.
“I think most people who don’t deal in the lane of foreign relations don’t realize that those nine words that he uttered would cause the kind of eruption that they did. But anytime you say, or even as he did, suggest that the policy was regime change, it’s going to cause a huge problem,” he said.
Russia responded to Biden’s remark, saying that whether or not Putin can stay in power is “not for Biden to decide.”
“Each time such personal insults narrow the window of opportunity for our bilateral relations under the current [U.S.] administration. It is necessary to be aware of this,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Newsweek reached out to the White House for comment Sunday afternoon.”
Ukrainian Military Intel Chief Says Putin Will ‘Attempt to Create North and South Korea in Ukraine’ to Save Face | CNN Newsroom | March 27, 2022
More of my appearance w @Acosta tonight on Putin’s options. https://t.co/82bdOQsdJy https://t.co/P7aVS6ywfW
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 28, 2022
Media: @Kasparov63 to @Acosta: “#Putin knows dictators don’t stay in power if they show weakness. Losing the war is the road to perdition. America & @NATO allies should make clear that any Russian base or warship using nuclear or chemical weapons will be immediately eliminated.” pic.twitter.com/luMGwErgGz
— Porter Anderson (@Porter_Anderson) March 27, 2022
This article is a reprint. You can see the original at Mediaite.
By Sarah Rumpf
“The invasion of Ukraine is not going as Vladimir Putin had hoped, that much is clear. Now the Russian dictator is looking for a way to save face — and, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, that could include attempting to carve the country in two like North and South Korea.
The Russian army’s attempts to take the capital city of Kyiv stalled and lately the Ukrainians have been pushing them back.
CNN reported Sunday that Brig. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Agency, had assessed that it would be impossible for Russia to actually overthrow the Ukrainian government, and as a result, Putin was focusing his efforts on the south and east.
“There is reason to believe that he is considering a ‘Korean’ scenario for Ukraine,” said Budanov. “That is, [Russian forces] will try to impose a dividing line between the unoccupied and occupied regions of our country. In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine.”
The Russians wanted to have a land corridor from the Russian border to Crimea, and had been trying to “create ‘parallel’ authorities in the occupied territories,” Budanov continued, including attempting to force people to give up using Ukrainian currency.
CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta interviewed Garry Kasparov about this news, asking the chess champion and activist what he thought about “this theory coming from the Ukrainians that the Russians may try to split Ukraine into two and claim that as a victory — does that sound plausible to you?”
Kasparov agreed that the operation had now shifted to “trying to salvage what they can and to give Putin at least some political cover to claim victory.” The generals had “somehow convinced Putin that his plans to take the entire Ukraine” was a “fantasy,” so he thought the Russians were “trying to fortify their positions near Kyiv and they’ll try to cut most of the east Ukraine from Kharkiv all the way down south to Kherson and to claim victory.”
This was a “far more realistic plan” from the Russians’ perspective, said Kasparov, but he still thought they would fail.
“Do you think the Ukrainians would stand for something like that?” Acosta followed up. “What should be the international response to something like this? To give Russia this face-saving gesture to split the country into two? I mean that seems to me to be an unacceptable option?”
“Absolutely it’s unacceptable,” Kasparov responded emphatically.
“I believe that the free world should recognize that Ukraine should be given every means possible to win the war…that’s most important now,” he continued. The West should continue to supply Ukraine “with weapons they need, like surface-to-air missiles, and anti-warship missiles, and other heavy equipment that would help them turn the tide and protect” their country, he argued, and also declare that “the sanctions crippling the Russian economy will stay until Russia clears the entire Ukrainian territory, Crimea included.”
This message would “be the most important weapon in the hands of the free world,” he concluded, urging President Joe Biden and other Western leaders to “make it absolutely clear to Putin, to his cronies, and to Russian people, that the sanctions will not go away the day Putin decides to declare a cease fire.”
Watch the video above, via CNN.”
March 25, 2022
Kasparov on Putin’s Changing Messaging and Claims of ‘Cancel Culture’ | AC360, CNN | March 25, 2022
It’s a sign of desperation, looking for allies anywhere. Putin’s circle is closing. Back in the Soviet days, the sign of power was who stood close to Stalin on the grandstand. Now you look at who is moving up the Forbes list. https://t.co/mzkyEB7Mv4
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 26, 2022
A month of Putin’s war: Ukrainians deserve not just to survive, but to win | New York Daily News | March 25, 2022
Following his old formula, Putin planned to use force to gain territory & concessions and the West would rush to accommodate him with diplomacy. The only problem? Someone forgot to tell the Ukrainians. My new op-ed in the @NYDailyNews:https://t.co/ZOlnRLUBtK
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 26, 2022
Defense is not escalation. Putin does not own Ukraine. Ukraine is a sovereign nation, sacrificing all to defend Europe and the rest of the free world. Help them win. My op-ed: https://t.co/ZOlnRLUBtK
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 26, 2022
This article is a reprint. You can read the original at the New York Daily News.
By Garry Kasparov
“Almost exactly eight years ago, my op-ed on Putin was titled ”Stop this man.” Putin was not stopped and, as I’ve often said of dictators, they do not stop until they are stopped. We are now one month into his all-out war on Ukraine, an invasion and bombardment of a sovereign European nation of 44 million people.
Now that’s probably closer to 40 million, as millions of refugees, mostly women and children, try to escape the destruction of their homes and lives. Many thousands have not been so lucky, although it will be a long time before the bodies can be recovered and counted in places like the southeastern city of Mariupol, which Russia has besieged and battered into rubble. One month ago, it was a city the size of Honolulu or Manchester.
The smoking ruins and fleeing civilians are reminiscent of Putin’s other wars in Syria and Chechnya. Murdering thousands of innocents and bombing schools and hospitals with modern weapons is not “indiscriminate,” by the way. It’s an intentional strategy designed to demoralize and terrify the target population into capitulating.
Russian President Vladimir Putin (Mikhail Metzel/AP)Putin’s initial goal was to take Kyiv quickly, behead its leadership — perhaps literally — and install a puppet regime as he did in occupied Eastern Ukraine in 2014. Based on initial responses, it seems that the U.S. and other powers were equally confident that this would happen in a matter of days. Instead of preparing Ukraine for the invasion with weapons and sanctions, they prepared for negotiations and a quick return to their comfort zone of useless diplomacy.
Perhaps they were listening to the “experts” who wrote before the war started that no amount of weaponry would help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion. Putin’s instincts about Western spinelessness were once again accurate. Following his old formula, previously employed in Eastern Ukraine as well as in the Republic of Georgia and Syria, he would use force to gain territory and concessions and the West would rush to accommodate him with diplomacy.
The only problem? Someone forgot to tell the Ukrainians. As the Russian joke going around puts it, “We are now one month into the two-day operation to capture Kyiv.”
President Volodymyr Zelensky refused to flee, reportedly responding to American offers to evacuate him with, “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition.” A former actor and comedian, Zelensky’s resume included Ukraine’s “Dancing with the Stars” and a TV show about accidentally becoming president. Since the war began, Zelensky’s Churchillian leadership has inspired the world via remote video addresses to parliaments, his countrymen, and even directly addressing the Kremlin and the Russian people — who of course aren’t allowed to see them thanks to Putin’s near-total media blackout.
Europe and the U.S. were also pushed to act by global public opinion, which mobilized very quickly in support of Ukraine. The media documented the unfolding horror in real time, with no doubt who the villain was. The exception being Tucker Carlson and some of his Fox News colleagues, who are so adept at parroting Kremlin propaganda that they should be paid in crackers.
The next surprise came on the battlefield. The Ukrainian military has fought well and hard, with the passion of a people defending their country. Meanwhile, Russia’s forces have proven inept and uncoordinated, rotted through with corruption. Russian soldiers’ morale is as low as the morals of their leader. Casualty numbers are likely in the tens of thousands, slowing Russia’s advance and making it harder for Putin to cover up the catastrophe back home. Dead Russian soldiers are left on the battlefield, unclaimed and unidentified.
Despite its surprising resilience, Ukraine is still badly overmatched. Putin has been building up his war machine for a decade, investing the hundreds of billions in profits from the Russian oil and gas the free world lined up to buy despite his crimes. (And many are still buying it, by the way.) Unable to defeat the Ukrainian military, Putin has continued with his usual modus operandi of turning on easier targets: civilians and infrastructure. Long-range missiles, more than 1,200 so far, heavy artillery, and aerial bombardment are directed against cities unable to bring in supplies or be evacuated. The short-range anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons the West has supplied, categorized as “defensive weapons,” are of little use against such attacks.
These are also war crimes, beyond the military invasion itself. I hope Western leaders keep this in mind as they begin to look for offramps and de-escalation options. Stopping the violence is the priority, yes, but if it is done by rewarding a war criminal with territorial conquest and reducing sanctions, it will only be a pause in Putin’s war.
Wars, plural, is more accurate. As I wrote in 2014, when Putin first invaded Ukraine, it was only the front line of his larger war against democracy and the liberal world order. Ukrainians are dying for the values of liberty and democracy the U.S. and other NATO nations profess to treasure. We must not let their sacrifice be in vain.
Sanctions will slowly eat away at Putin’s ability to fund his war and at Russians’ support of it, but thousands more Ukrainians will die without more immediate protection. Lack of food and electricity is affecting more major population centers by the day, a situation that will grow worse regardless of the short-term military balance.
The Biden administration has been late and is still behind Europe in sanctioning Russia and aiding Ukraine despite having excellent advance intelligence about Putin’s invasion. The West was ready to help Ukraine fight a guerrilla war against occupiers, as if it were Afghanistan fighting off the Soviet Union in the 1980s. Much more is needed, including jets, drones and other weapons that can counter Putin’s vicious and cowardly long-range attacks.
A new mindset is required as much as new weaponry. Ukrainians deserve not just to survive, but to win. It would repeat the mistakes of 2014 to allow Russia to continue to occupy an inch of Ukrainian territory, to let Putin claim victory and transition back to holding fake negotiations in nice hotels while he rearms and reloads to prepare for his next assault.
Putin has said repeatedly that Ukraine is not a legitimate state. Does the West agree with this assessment, that it’s nothing more than a buffer between Putin’s dictatorship and free and prosperous Europe? If not, why are they conceding Ukraine’s sovereignty? Ukrainian land, skies, and sea do not belong to Putin. He is an invader. Zelensky is pleading with NATO and its member nations for more direct assistance, including a no-fly zone over the country. They have refused because such a step could lead to the direct engagement of Russian forces — as if NATO was created to issue memos instead of fighting to defend democracy.
It is constantly repeated that there is no NATO obligation to defend Ukraine, a non-member. But neither is there a prohibition against the coalition or individual nations taking action to stop a genocide on NATO’s doorstep.
As for escalation, Putin will do that anyway and it’s more likely the more confident he is the West will not intervene. Dictators like Putin don’t require provocation to escalate. This new war came after years of Western collaboration and negotiation with Putin, not deterrence and strength. We must finally learn that lesson. As Zelensky said in his video address on Thursday, “freedom must be armed.”
Putin is capable of anything, but he and his commanders are not suicidal. He blusters about nuclear weapons because he knows the effect it has. We must be resolute and do everything possible for Ukraine to achieve victory. If you’re so afraid of what a dictator will do if he loses that you’re helping him win, you should reevaluate your strategy and your character.
This war will not truly end as long as Putin is in power. He must be isolated completely, with no way back. There can be no place for Russia in the Iran deal or anywhere else. His commanders, cronies, and ordinary Russians must be forced to choose between normal life and life as a pariah under Putin.
Putin has survived this long because he keeps raising the stakes and his opponents keep offering him lifelines. It’s time to pull up the rope. It’s time to live up to the ideals Ukrainians are dying for. By doing so we will not only help save Ukraine, but save ourselves.
Kasparov is chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative.”
March 24, 2022
On the Introduction of a No-Fly Zone in Ukrainian Airspace | The Anti-War Committee of Russia | March 24, 2022
March 24 statement by the Anti-War Committee of Russia on the need to establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. It’s Ukrainian land, sea, and air. Putin is an invader. If Ukraine is a sovereign state, it has the right to ask for help and deserves it. https://t.co/WNxCn16p1O
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 24, 2022
You can read the original statement at the Anti-War Committee of Russia.
“The unprovoked war against the sovereign state of Ukraine has now been going on for a month. Thousands of people have been killed, including women, the elderly and children. Massive aerial bombardments and missile attacks are destroying civilian infrastructure and towns and villages in Ukraine. Mariupol has been almost completely destroyed. Kharkiv, Izyum, Volnovakha, Kyiv and other cities have seen considerable destruction.
More than 10 million citizens of Ukraine have become refugees; 3.5 million of them have moved to other European countries.
This military aggression against Ukraine – a sovereign state – has excluded Putin’s regime from the civilized world. Yet the sanctions imposed by the international community have not forced Putin to stop the war; to stop the deaths of innocent people; or the destruction of a neighboring state.
We, the members of the Anti-War Committee, are convinced of the need to take the most urgent measures to prevent further civilian deaths. Among other things, this is one of the goals of NATO’s common mission.
It would be possible to achieve an end to civilian deaths by establishing a “no-fly zone” in Ukrainian airspace.
We call on the leaders of Western countries to take such a decision without delay.
Members of the Anti-War Committee of Russia:
Sergey Aleksashenko, economist
Evgeny Chichvarkin, entrepreneur
Konstantin Chumakov, scientist
Dmitry Gudkov, politician
Vladimir Kara-Murza, politician, historian
Garry Kasparov, political activist, 13th world chess champion
Mikhail Kasyanov, former Prime Minister of Russia
Mikhail Khodorkovsky, philanthropist, former political prisoner
Evgeny Kiselev, journalist
Eugene Koonin, biologist
Yulia Latynina, writer, journalist
Elena Lukyanova, lawyer
Yuri Pivovarov, historian, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Viktor Shenderovich, writer
Boris Zimin, entrepreneur”
March 23, 2022
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