Garry Kasparov's Blog, page 24

RDI Podcast Launch: Winter is Here ft. Garry Kasparov, Alex Vindman | March 4, 2022

This article is a reprint. See the original and listen to the podcast at the Renew Democracy Initiative on Substack.

By Garry Kasparov

“World War III is upon us—in fact, it has already begun. We are doing our best to keep you informed by launching a new podcast, moving our newsletter onto Substack, and offering guest contributions from experts such as my partners on RDI’s Board.

For more than a decade, Vladimir Putin has waged war on the civilized world of international law, democracy, and any threat to his power. The Cold War didn’t end; the West quit.

Ukrainians are fighting on the frontlines of this global war. They battle against a dictator emboldened by two decades of friendly treatment and concessions from the West. With each death, the Ukrainian people pay a debt that the US and EU accrued every time they chose to appease Putin.

The advance of Putin’s army didn’t start with Ukraine, and he has no plans to stop it there. If you fear that NATO will come into direct conflict with Russia’s army, you should. Putin intends it. He will march his army west past the Dnieper onto the border of Poland. He will order it north toward the Baltic states, which he has demanded lose their full NATO status. He will do all of this because he can, and he can because we let him.

Putin’s battle is in Ukraine, but his war is against democracy. Peaceful and prosperous democracies are proof to the Russian people that Putin’s reign is a catastrophic mistake. As his dictatorship could never deliver for the Russian people like a democracy could, he must degrade democracy wherever it exists. In Western Europe and the United States, that has meant meddling in elections, financing extremist parties, and funding troll farms to drive hateful division. In Ukraine, it means war.

I joined other leaders, activists, journalists, and academics to found RDI on the belief that the fight to achieve democracy in oppressive countries and the struggle to defend it in America are connected. When Putin marches into a neighboring country to prop up its dictator or destroy its fairly-elected government, his target is democracy everywhere. When democracy falters in the United States, it strengthens Putin and other dictators like him. The crisis in Ukraine is throwing this fact into sharp relief, and our work is as important as ever before.

This crisis is demanding, and as it unfolds we want to offer you as much as we can. As an organization, we are transitioning some of our content onto Substack, where we can expand into new media, host guest contributions from experts such as my partners on RDI’s Board, and encourage comments and conversation among our community.

As the first new offering, I’m launching Winter is Here, a podcast with RDI’s executive director, Uriel Epshtein. Each Friday, we’ll release an episode discussing the global war between freedom and tyranny. Our inaugural episode launches today, and you can find it at the top of this post. We spoke with Lt. Col (Ret) Alexander Vindman, whose expertise and personal bravery have never been more relevant.

Our weekly Democracy Brief newsletter, written by our brilliant Content & Strategy Manager, James Lewis, will continue to arrive in your inboxes on Thursday mornings as usual. It will look a bit different and the author won’t be anonymous any longer, but you can expect the same wide-ranging analysis of topics related to democracy in the US and abroad.

With this change, we’ll also be able to offer you exclusive content from the RDI network, with guest pieces landing in your inbox either in place of the regular newsletter or as additional op-eds, videos, or podcasts.

Lastly, we want to build a community together. While we’ll keep offering our analysis of the pressing stories in democracy in the US and around the world, we want you to be able to discuss them, ask questions, and offer your thoughts as well. On Substack, our comments will be open where we encourage you to react to our work, share your opinion, and discuss what needs to be done to defend democracy. In the future, we intend to create more opportunities for you to engage with us in Q&A’s, happy hours, and open conversations.

The tragedy in Ukraine demands our attention, and we will do our best to answer that call. All the while, we won’t ignore the crisis in democracy in America that is both aiding Putin’s aggression and is exacerbated by it. As we embark on this next phase in RDI’s history with you, we encourage you to share this post with your friends and colleagues and invite them to join our community.

Garry Kasparov

RDI Founder & Chairman”

 

Sanctions ‘useless’ against ‘modern dictator’ Putin | Mornings with Maria | March 4, 2022

Human Rights Foundation chairman @Kasparov63: “Don’t call Putin Russian president. I think it’s an insult to Russian people and it’s also insult to the title.

He’s a brutal dictator and he should be called so.”@HRF @MariaBartiromo @FoxBusiness pic.twitter.com/BVfG7WbaYI

— Mornings with Maria (@MorningsMaria) March 4, 2022

You can see the original video at Fox Business.

Kasparov calls on world powers to throw Russia ‘back into the Stone Age’ | Reuters | March 4, 2022

“Technological” Stone Age! It’s Putin who is the risk of ending civilization if he’s not stopped now. Putin and other dictatorships exploit tech created in the free world to attack it. No more. Shut it all down. Russians have to see Putin is a dead end. https://t.co/k4EtQMEaru

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 4, 2022

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

By Aleksandra Michalska and Julia Harte

“March 3 (Reuters) – Russian human rights activist and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov on Thursday urged world powers to adopt a harsher military and economic strategy against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine.

In an interview with Reuters, Kasparov called on Western countries to recall their ambassadors from Moscow, eject Russia from the global police agency Interpol, and impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

“Russia should be thrown back into the Stone Age to make sure that the oil and gas industry and any other sensitive industries that are vital for survival of the regime cannot function without Western technological support,” Kasparov said.

Sanctions so far imposed by the United States and other NATO countries have isolated Russia to an unprecedented extent for an economy of such size. Hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russian troops crossed the border on Feb. 24, and more than 1 million refugees have fled, according to the United Nations. read more

Garry Kasparov speaks during Web Summit, Europe’s largest technology conference, in Lisbon, Portugal, November 3, 2021. REUTERS/Pedro Nunes/File Photo

Kasparov, a former chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation who played an active role in the anti-Kremlin opposition protest movement when he lived in Moscow, told Reuters there could be no peace in the region until Putin is removed from power.

“The list of what Putin would ‘never do’ has grown so long,” he said. “He has committed war crimes beyond imagination.”

Kasparov also took aim at U.S. President Joe Biden for not taking more aggressive action at Putin earlier: “I hope that Americans will revise their strategy and will show strength.”

Russia and Ukraine have agreed on the need to establish humanitarian corridors and a possible ceasefire around them for Ukrainian civilians fleeing the war, negotiators for both sides said following talks on Thursday. A first round of talks held in Belarus on Monday did not yield any progress.”

Garry Kasparov on Putin’s Timing | MSNBC’s 11th Hour | March 3, 2022

RDI Chairman @Kasparov63 speaks w/@MSNBC‘s @11thHour alongside Former Deputy Natl. Security Advisor @brhodes, highlighting ignored warning signs & #Putin‘s timing:

“..(he)..waited for the Olympics to be over…was always listening very carefully to Comrade Xi in #Beijing..” pic.twitter.com/XhO1ovafka

— Renew Democracy Initiative (@Renew_Democracy) March 3, 2022

American Unity is Crucial to Stopping Putin | CNN Opinion | March 3, 2022

“We must remember though the cost of stopping Putin is high, the cost of allowing the world order to be rewritten is far greater,” writes @Kasparov63 @UrielEpshtein https://t.co/ySEqMSb5da

— CNN Opinion (@CNNOpinion) March 3, 2022

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

By Garry Kasparov and Uriel Epshtein

“Editor’s Note: Garry Kasparov is a former world chess champion and chairman of the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI). Uriel Epshtein is the executive director of the Renew Democracy Initiative. The views expressed in this commentary are their own. View more opinion on CNN.

CNN —  

In our era of political polarization, hardly anything can unite a majority of Americans. That’s why new polling from CNN on the crisis in Ukraine is so encouraging: 84% of both Democrats and Republicans support increased economic sanctions against Russia. A remarkable 65% of Republicans and 64% of Democrats think we should be doing more to support the Ukrainians.

Garry KasparovUriel Epshtein

This unity was obvious at President Joe Biden’s State of the Union on Tuesday, where Democrats and Republicans gave him and Ukrainian Ambassador to the US Oksana Markarova multiple standing ovations when the President discussed Ukraine’s fight for freedom.

Anytime Americans agree on something is notable, but it is particularly remarkable given numerous partisan attempts to have us look away, do less and allow Russian leader Vladimir Putin to run roughshod over the Ukrainian people.

With the unity the American people now have, we must act quickly and decisively. First, we must continue to answer Putin’s war of aggression with an economic war of attrition. Already, the actions of democratic governments around the world are encouraging. Many Russian banks are being kicked out of SWIFT, a messaging service used for international banking, governments around the globe are announcing new measures to limit their economic ties to Russia every day, and even countries like Switzerland and Germany, traditionally averse to sanctions and military aid respectively, have reversed decades-old policies to punish Russia for its naked aggression.

If Putin ultimately does come to the negotiating table, the sanctions must not be lifted at that point. For far too long we’ve offered concessions as a sign of goodwill in our negotiations with a dictator who only answers to force. That failed strategy has earned us the largest war in Europe since 1945. Our economic warfare must not end until every Russian troop is out of Ukraine and a durable peace is achieved.

Second, we must go after the Russian oligarchs directly. The spoils of the Russian economy are siphoned by oligarchs who then park their money in luxury properties abroad. In exchange for backing Putin, they spend their summers along the Mediterranean cruising on yachts worth millions. Their children attend elite private schools in New England and the English countryside, then graduate into the Ivy League.

It’s time for the party to end. Seize their properties. Target the shell companies that protect their assets in tax havens. Deny them and their families visas to every country with a coastline, ski mountain or vineyard. Let them sit in Russia with the terrors they have enabled and see how long Putin’s war lasts. We won’t cut off the head of the snake; they will.

These measures are necessary, but the American unity they rely on may be fleeting. It’s easy to be unified when the shock of the Russian invasion is still fresh in our minds. When gas prices and inflation continue to soar, it will be harder. If supply chain issues worsen, it will be harder still.

What Americans must recognize is any suffering we experience now is a necessary price to pay compared to the world we would be ushering in through inaction. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine threatens to tear apart the fabric of the rules-based world order countless Americans have died to create and defend. In the process, it would make the current shocks we’re experiencing our new normal.

‘He has decided to destroy the whole world’: Six global voices on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine

In a world lacking order, border disputes will be settled through conflict, destabilizing entire regions. If Kyiv falls, will Moldova be next? Putin’s ally in Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, seemed to reveal plans to do just that. Meanwhile, China’s Xi Jinping is eyeing Taiwan for a forced “reunification” of the two countries that the Taiwanese leadership will not submit to peacefully. And fear of invasion from an increasingly belligerent China or North Korea has persuaded many South Koreans to support developing a nuclear arsenal of their own.

Despite this reality, the mission to further undermine American support for Ukraine is ongoing. On Saturday, mere days after Putin invaded Ukraine, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) released a statement condemning Russia’s invasion and expressing solidarity with the Ukrainians. But in the same statement, they then reaffirmed their “call for the US to withdraw from NATO and to end the imperialist expansionism that set the stage for this conflict.” In making such a plea, the Democratic Socialists managed to frame the US as the imperialist expansionist, even as Russia wages an unprovoked and bloody war of imperialist expansion.

Then, on Sunday, Tulsi Gabbard, the former Democratic congresswoman turned Fox News regular, implored America to call on Putin, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Biden to “embrace the spirit of aloha” and declare Ukraine perpetually neutral, “thus alleviat[ing] the legitimate security concerns of both US/NATO countries and Russia.” By “legitimate security concerns” of Russia, we assume she means Putin’s desire to dominate his smaller neighbor.

These voices may be on the fringe now, but they will likely grow louder. When that happens, we must remember though the cost of stopping Putin is high, the cost of allowing the world order to be rewritten is far greater.

Americans must maintain this unity, continue our support of the Ukrainian people and recognize the fight for democracy is about much more than one country’s ability to determine its own fate. The struggle for democracy is also about the ability to live in a world where disagreements can be solved through diplomacy, where human rights are protected and where peace is the status quo.

When partisans attempt to undermine our support for Ukraine, when the effects of strong economic sanctions are felt at the gas pump and the grocery store, remember this is a struggle we must face head on.”

Путин играет в ядерный покер, – Каспаров предположил, кто может на него повлиять | 24 Канал | March 2, 2022

Thank you. I am an optimist by nature, and even though I am depressed by the lack of more forceful action by the West, I try to be at my most positive when talking to Ukrainian media, for obvious reasons. https://t.co/m3IQBO940g

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 4, 2022

You can see the original video on YouTube.

Putin’s Campaign of Terror in Ukraine | March 1, 2022

“Putin, who failed to take over Ukraine in two or three days, is now intentionally hitting civilians. It’s a campaign of terror. And it will intensify,” @Kasparov63 says.@HRF @jdbalart @MSNBC pic.twitter.com/nbfoumFC06

— José Díaz-Balart Reports (@JDBalartMSNBC) March 1, 2022

Is Putin’s Time Up? | Times Radio | March 1, 2022

WATCH: Garry Kasparov’s interview in full on Times Radio Youtube channel, where he talks about the Russian army “running out of steam”, Western sanctions and Russian money in the UK.https://t.co/UXurO3w3Kg@StigAbell | @Kasparov63

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) March 1, 2022

Watch the original interview at the Times Radio.

 

Why Putin’s Madness Has Already Started World War III | The Megyn Kelly Show | March 1, 2022

“Let’s not deceive ourselves, this is already World War III…Vladimir Putin is attacking the very foundation of the world…”

On Putin’s madness and “World War III,” with Garry @Kasparov63. Watch and download: https://t.co/QheIr7wnM2https://t.co/EcTFsHuKo2

— The Megyn Kelly Show (@MegynKellyShow) March 1, 2022

You can watch the original video on YouTube.

Knocking Putin’s teams off the sports stage leaves him exposed to his own people | Washington Post | February 28, 2022

Great piece by #sallyjenkins in today’s Post about importance of sports bans to reaching Russian people. (With credit to @Kasparov63) https://t.co/ehMIpUbGFs

— Dan Thompson (@mrcdtee2) March 1, 2022

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

By Sally Jenkins

“There is nothing trivial about wiping Vladimir Putin’s musky perspirations from the international sports stage. Sanctions against Putin in the sphere of games have a reach unlike any other because they leave him sweatingly exposed to the only audience he really fears or courts: the Russians in the street. His brand of shirtless belligerent patriotism — his macho nationalism — has been a long con, and it’s no small thing to knock him off medal podiums and expose the lifts in his shoes, or to rip off his judo belt and show the softening of his belly and, in turn, weaken his influence.

Please answer some questions in this short survey about professional soccer and the 2022 Men’s FIFA World Cup.

“This could have a tremendous impact on minds of many Russians,” says Garry Kasparov, the former chess world champion-turned-activist. It was an act of “moral capitulation” to award Putin prestige via sports events in the first place, as Kasparov observes. It stemmed from a fundamental misconception: that this odious strongman trifled with events such as the World Cup and the Olympics because he wished to play nice with the international audience and had a diplomatic side. Wrong.

Putin’s games always have been about his dead-serious, murderous consolidation of power at home. They are tools to awe and blinker, to intimidate and cow, with displays of superiority. FIFA’s decision to suspend Russia from World Cup play and all other soccer competition for the bloody invasion of Ukraine is thus merely remedial, and now it’s the International Olympic Committee’s turn to make up for the unpardonable 2014 Sochi Games, which so encouraged his flexing and strengthened him.

It’s an open question whether Putin is truly after the restoration of a triumphalist, imperialistic Russian identity in Ukraine, or whether he needs another bloodstained nationalistic surge to cover for the criminality of his regime, or whether he just has come egotistically unmoored. In any case, sports matter greatly to the narrative he’s trying to push. If he’s hellbent on reversing what he saw as the humiliations of the 1990s by decadent Westerners, then gold medals give him credibility. Or if he’s simply out to shore up his “mystique” in the face of rising discontent at home and to “inoculate Russians against revelations about his malfeasance” by whipping up Russian competitiveness against meddling outsiders, as political scientist M. Steven Fish powerfully suggested in 2014, then trophy hunting is a fine way to do that, too.

Kasparov, for one, believes Putin’s power plays through sports engagement have been more essential to him than most analysts have recognized. When one of his confidants, Roman Abramovich, bought into in the English Premier League via Chelsea, it made the stunted Russian economy seem more global-sized. Sports for Putin have long offered cover “for some operations that are not directly related to the games,” Kasparov observes. They are “an important part in his campaign of gaining influence.”

There was no better instance than the Sochi Games, Putin’s personal enterprise, with colossally scaled buildings that promised massive rebuilt infrastructure in a “new” Russia, with facades that dwarfed individuals into specks and projected the fearsome power of a literal rainmaker.

Sochi wasn’t just a vanity project or an excuse to build palaces for Putin. You can thank the IOC for boosting Putin’s flagging domestic approval ratings, which apparently went from 54 percent in 2013 to an all-time high near 90 percent after the Olympics and bolstered his Ukraine strategy.

Russia analyst David Satter — the author of the book “The Less You Know, The Better You Sleep” about Putin’s rise and who examined his regime closely for years before he was expelled — believes all of Putin’s wars are strategic attempts to placate Russians for his kleptocracy by “consolidating the population around various military adventures.”

Former college basketball standout blamed his Ukrainian pro team for stranding him

Barring Russian teams from sports arenas will break through and speak to the Russian population in a uniquely powerful, if regrettable, way. It leaves Putin uncovered, reminding Russians of his genuine unsavoriness in the eyes of the world. The most angering thing about strongmen is that they blot out culture and replace it with personal cult, and Putin has blotted his country’s glorious culture, from its fine arts to its ballet-based athleticism, with his emphasis on brute strength. Look again at those absurd videos of Putin practicing judo — the aging, chill-faced little man taking an ungainly roll. See how heavily he breathes and how he unstably struggles to rise. Understand how much sports exhibitions matter to Putin — as long as no one looks too closely.

Declarations like FIFA’s will penetrate his total control of the media and cause Russians to look more closely at him. There is no propagandizing this playing field ostracism, no explaining away the sports world’s recoil from him. “Most ordinary Russians have a very limited and distorted picture of what’s happening in Ukraine,” Kasparov says. “But things like FIFA banning Russia will make them look around.” Banking sanctions are one kind of check, but there is deep emotion in a ban from the world’s largest arenas that will reach not just oligarchs but ordinary people as a statement of universally revolted sensibilities. It takes a special rage to refuse to play with someone at all.

“Sport organizations are absolutely important as a form of isolation,” Kasparov says, “to show Putin and the people who support him that there are consequences for his actions, that he cannot define the battlefield.””