Garry Kasparov's Blog, page 51

Why the rise of authoritarianism is a global catastrophe | WashPost Feb 13th, 2017

By Garry Kasparov and Thor Halvorssen 

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE IN THE WASHINGTON POST

Last month the world’s elite listened politely as Chinese President Xi Jinping offered the keynote address at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Of course, the leader of the Chinese dictatorship didn’t mention how he and his cronies jail and disappear human rights activists, persecute ethnic minorities and religious groups, and operate a vast censorship and surveillance system, among other evils. It is striking that a forum dedicated to “improving the state of the world” would offer such an important stage to the leader of a repressive regime. Xi began his remarks in part by asking “What has gone wrong with the world?” The fact is, he’s part of the problem.

At present, the authoritarianism business is booming. According to the Human Rights Foundation’s research, the citizens of 94 countries suffer under non-democratic regimes, meaning that 3.97 billion people are currently controlled by tyrants, absolute monarchs, military juntas or competitive authoritarians. That’s 53 percent of the world’s population. Statistically, then, authoritarianism is one of the largest — if not the largest — challenges facing humanity.

Consider the scale of some of the world’s other crises. About 836 million live under extreme poverty, and 783 million lack clean drinking water. War and conflict have displaced 65 million from their homes. Between 1994 and 2013 an annual average of 218 million people were affected by natural disasters. These are terrible, seemingly intractable problems — but at least there are United Nations bodies, aid organizations and State Department teams dedicated to each one of them.

Dictators and elected authoritarians, by contrast, get a free pass. The World Bank bails out repressive regimes on a regular basis. There is no anti-tyrant U.N. task force, no Sustainable Development Goals against tyranny, no army of activists.

We, the authors, have experienced the ills of authoritarianism personally. One of us has been beaten, blacklisted and forced into exile by operatives of the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin has relentlessly pushed to crush freedom of speech, brazenly annex Crimea and increase his global military activities in ways that hark back to the Cold War. The other author has seen his mother shot by Venezuelan security forces and his first cousin languish for nearly three years in a military jail as a prisoner of conscience. Today Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro runs a regime that regularly imprisons dissidents, abuses protesters and engages in such widespread graft and corruption that the country is now undergoing a catastrophic economic collapse.

Putin and Maduro have co-conspirators in all parts of the world, fellow would-be tyrants who are dismantling the free press, jailing opponents, manipulating elections and committing a host of human rights violations. In Turkey, a once-promising democracy is gasping for air. Its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has shut down 149 media outlets, shuttered more than 2,000 schools and universities, fired more than 120,000 civil servants and jailed more than 45,000 suspected dissenters. In North Korea, Kim Jong Un rules the most totalitarian government on Earth, brainwashing 25 million people and terrorizing them with public executions, forced famines and a vast network of concentration camps that reminded U.N. investigators of Pol Pot’s Cambodia and Nazi Germany.

And there are so many lesser-known dictators in countries such as Bahrain, Kazakhstan and Equatorial Guinea, where tyrants pilfer their countries’ natural resources and pocket the profits in private off-shore accounts. To cover their atrocities, they hire lobbyists, public relations firms and even policy groups in the free world to whitewash their actions.

If injustice and oppression aren’t bad enough, authoritarian governments bear an enormous social cost. Dictator-led countries have higher rates of mental illness, lower levels of health and life expectancy, and, as Amartya Sen famously argued, higher susceptibility to famine. Their citizens are less educated and file fewer patents. In 2016, more patents were filed in France than in the entire Arab world — not because Arabs are less entrepreneurial than the French, but because nearly all of them live under stifling authoritarianism. Clearly, the suppression of free expression and creativity has harmful effects on innovation and economic growth. Citizens of free and open societies such as Germany, South Korea and Chile witness advances in business, science and technology that Belarusans, Burmese and Cubans can only dream of.

And consider that free nations do not go to war with each other. History has shown this to be the only ironclad law of political theory. Meanwhile, dictators are always at war, often with a foreign power and always with their own people. If you are worried about public health, poverty or peace, your mandate is clear: Oppose tyranny.

Tragically, world institutions and organizations have failed to properly address authoritarianism. Western governments sometimes protest human rights violations in countries such as Russia, Iran, and North Korea — but routinely ignore them in places such as China and Saudi Arabia, in favor of upholding trade deals and security agreements. The United Nations, established to bring peace and justice to the world, includes Cuba, Egypt and Rwanda on its Human Rights Council. Here, a representative from a democracy carries the same legitimacy as a representative from a dictatorship. One acts on behalf of its citizens, while the other acts to silence them. Between June 2006 and August 2015 the Human Rights Council issued zero condemnations of repressive regimes in China, Cuba, Egypt, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Despite the fact that dictatorship is at the root of many global ills — poor health, failing education systems and global poverty among them — authoritarianism is hardly ever addressed at major conferences worldwide. And no wonder: Many, including the World Economic Forum and the now-defunct Clinton Global Initiative, receive ample funding from authoritarians. Few human rights groups focus exclusively on authoritarianism, and most establishment ones spend significant chunks of their budgets on criticizing democratic governments and their policies. Dictators are rarely in the spotlight.

The noble struggle against tyranny has fallen upon individual activists and dissidents living under authoritarian rule or working from exile. Citizen journalists Abdalaziz Alhamza and Meron Estefanos found that few people in peaceful, free countries were interested in reporting on Syria and Eritrea, so they took it upon themselves to do so, despite the enormous danger this put them in. Hyeonseo Lee defected from North Korea to find that victims of sex trafficking in China are often abandoned and ignored, so she started pressuring the Chinese government herself. When Rosa María Payá’s father, Cuban democracy leader Oswaldo Payá, died in mysterious circumstances in 2012, it fell to her to demand a formal investigation and fair treatment for dissidents in Cuba. Such individuals are in constant need of support, because in their home countries there is no legal way to protest, no ACLU, no Washington Post and no opposition party to stand up for their rights.

If authoritarianism and dictatorship are to be properly challenged — and if so many resulting crises, including military conflict, poverty and extremism, are to be addressed at their root cause — such dissidents need funding, strategic advice, technical training, attention and solidarity. To turn the tide against repression, people across all industries need to join the movement. Artists, entrepreneurs, technologists, investors, diplomats, students — no matter who you are, you can reach out to a civil society organization at risk and ask how you can help by using your knowledge, resources or skills.

Today, authoritarians rule an increasingly large part of the globe, but the leaders of the free world lack the motivation and gumption to create a new U.N.-style League of Democracies. In the meantime, as individuals living in a free society, we believe it is our moral obligation to take action to expose human rights violations and to use our freedom to help others achieve theirs.

READ ORIGINAL ARTICLE AT THE WASHINGTON POST 

Trump’s courting of Putin ‘sinister’ and may spell doom for American leadership, Kasparov says | CNBC | Feb 26th, 2017

Sunday, 26 Feb 2017 | 9:00 AM ET

If anyone could advise President Donald Trump on what his next move should be with Russia, it’s Garry Kasparov.

For more than a decade, the former world chess champion has publicly challenged Russian President Vladimir Putinas a pro-democracy activist. While over the past year, Trump has repeatedly voiced support for Putin, both to reports and on social media.

Meanwhile, Kasparov—who was arrested and detained in 2007 and 2012 for protesting Putin in Russia—has been watching, and he hasn’t been amused.

In an interview with CNBC’s On The Money, Kasparov said “Trump’s admiration for Putin can be explained by Trump’s admiration for strong man, for the way these strong men rule their countries.” However, Kasparov, who now chairs the Human Rights Foundation, said he thinks “there’s probably something more sinister.”

In a news conference last month, Trump said, “If Putin likes Donald Trump, guess what folks? That’s an asset, not a liability.” The president has also talked about benefits of a warmer relationship with Russia. At least in theory, could that bring benefits to both countries?

“Dialogue is always good,” Kasparov told CNBC, “but the question is what are you going to discuss and what price are you willing to pay for improving relations?”

Garry Kasparov

David Levenson | Getty Images

Garry Kasparov

Kasparov says he believes Trump “wanted to cut a deal with Putin, no matter what, at the expense of America’s traditional allies. And that would be the end of American global leadership.”

Recently, Trump called NATO obsolete and has talked of wanting the member countries to pay more for defense.

U.S. intelligence has accused Russia of interfering in the 2016 election. Kasparov told CNBC that’s not the first time Putin has tried to influence polling in other countries.

“Putin is not just attacking US elections, but he has been doing it throughout Europe, trying to bring ultra-nationalist or far-left parties into power.”

Kasparov further warned about Putin in his book, “Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.” The activist said to CNBC that “Putin’s Russia is a one-man dictatorship with a fascist ideology, that is annexing territories from neighboring countries and supporting global instability.”

Putin’s tactics are “the core of his domestic propaganda. He has nothing else to offer to the Russian people. That’s why attacking the United States, attacking the free world, creating chaos and instability,” Kasparov told CNBC. “That’s the only justification for his endless staying power.”

With the former KGB operative in power for the foreseeable future, Kasparov cautioned it may be part of the Putin’s long-term survival strategy.

“As long as Vladimir Putin stays in power, he will continue these polices of confrontation.”

On the Money airs on CNBC Saturday at 5:30 am ET, or check listings for air times in local markets.

Trump’s strange relationship | The Daily News | Feb 19, 2017

What last week revealed about the President, Putin and Russia

by Garry Kasparov

Read original at the Daily News

<Retired Gen. Michael Flynn resigned as President Trump’s national security adviser last week, after reports confirmed that he had spoken to the Russian ambassador about lifting American sanctions and then lied about doing so. Flynn likely won’t be charged with any crime, but honestly, who wants a top security official who doesn’t realize that his communications with Russians would be closely monitored?

On Dec. 29, just hours after Obama had announced strong sanctions against Russia in retaliation for hacking related to the election, the FBI recorded Flynn’s conversation with Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Flynn was likely attempting to reassure the Kremlin that everything would be fine once Trump took office a few weeks later.

Tellingly, Russian President Vladimir Putin seems to have accepted the proposal, as he announced the very next day that Russia would not answer Obama in kind by expelling American diplomats from Russia. The game continued a few hours later, when Trump tweeted about how smart Putin was for not retaliating.

The FBI recorded Flynn’s conversations with Sergey Kislyak, Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. (CLIFF OWEN/AP)

It was the first time in my memory that Putin has backed down like that, so for some reason he judged it in his best interests.

But when the Washington Post found out about the calls and raised this quid pro quo possibility a few weeks later, the Trump transition team quickly denied that Flynn had talked to any Russians about lifting sanctions, and then repeated this denial after the inauguration. Remarkably, even when leaks confirmed Flynn had, in fact, discussed sanctions and lied to Vice-President Mike Pence about it, Trump denied having heard any of these reports himself.

Oddly, Trump did not seem angry with Flynn over the snafu, as you might expect if one of your top appointees went rogue by having secret conversations with a hostile foreign power. We may never know if Trump told Flynn to reassure Russia about the sanctions, or if he later told Flynn to lie about it. The truth will only come out if and when Flynn is obliged to testify under oath.

But it does seem clear that Putin, at least, believed Flynn had the authority to speak for the incoming President, and acted accordingly.

Gen. Michael T. Flynn (left rear) sits next to Vladimir Putin during a 2015 event marking the 10th anniversary of RT (Russia Today) in Moscow. (MIKHAIL KLIMENTYEV/SPUTNIK, KREMLIN POOL PHOTO VIA AP)

Trump’s reaction to Flynn’s resignation made it sound like it had been demanded by someone else. Trump blamed his own intelligence apparatus for leaking the content of Flynn’s Russia contacts and blamed the media for revealing it. Turning to Twitter, his own personal Pravda, Trump defended Flynn as a “good man” who was being treated unfairly.

But then why did he ask Flynn to resign? If the leaked information was accurate, as Trump must have known it to be, how could it also be “fake news”?

Such obvious contradictions aren’t a problem for Trump, of course. They are his oxygen, his lifeblood. Much like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass,” Trump says as many as six impossible things before breakfast. It’s for others to try to reconcile them, to figure out if they represent new American policy, a complete fantasy or just whatever he saw on TV the night before.

If the accusations against Flynn were true, why did Trump call the reports “fake news”? (CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS)

The White House is hoping that the stories about the administration’s inappropriate contacts with Russia will end with Flynn’s exit, but this is unlikely. Like a matryoshka nesting doll, every revelation leads to another, and another, with Putin always at the center.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on friendly terms with Putin and was even awarded a friendship medal by the Russian dictator in 2012. Trump’s Commerce nominee Wilbur Ross has banking ties with Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Cyprus, one of the main hubs for laundering money siphoned out of Russia.

Trump’s Commerce nominee Wilbur Ross has banking ties with Viktor Vekselberg (c.), pictured at a signing ceremony in Tokyo this past Decemberr with (l. to r.) Vladimir Putin, Fanuc company Chief Executive Yoshiharu Inaba and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. (SPUTNIK/MICHAEL KLIMENTYEV/KREMLIN VIA REUTERS)

Considering the wealthy stature of most of Trump’s cabinet appointees, it’s not a surprise that several of them would have conflicts of interest. It does seem like quite a coincidence, however, that so many of these conflicts have to do with Putin’s Russia. It would almost be reassuring to hear about a scandal involving one of Trump’s nominees and, say, Saudi Arabia or Venezuela.

Instead, it’s Russian hacking, Russian phone calls and Russian banking.

During the campaign, it was worrying when several of Donald Trump’s top advisers turned out to have extensive Russian political and business connections. Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign director for a time, for years worked for Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, Putin’s puppet ruler there until he was literally chased out of town in 2014 and into exile in Russia.

Before joining Trump’s team, Flynn appeared on Putin’s propaganda network Russia Today and was even seated next to Putin at a Moscow party celebrating the channel.

Even more troubling, the candidate’s own rhetoric about Putin was inexplicably flattering. Why on Earth would an American presidential candidate, a Republican one no less, repeatedly express his admiration for a KGB dictator whose track record includes destroying Russian democracy, killing journalists and dissidents, and carpet-bombing civilians in Chechnya and Aleppo? Trump admires strength, and could not care less about democracy in Russia or anywhere else, but this was well beyond that. 

When the election got underway, I expected Hillary Clinton to be a Russia hawk in order to blunt criticism of the failed “Russian reset” policy she helped orchestrate when she was President Obama’s secretary of state. Any normal Republican candidate would be expected to also condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, as well as the genocide he was perpetrating with his friend Bashar Assad in Syria.

Instead, we got Trump, and Trump never backed down from his shocking praise of Putin. This admiration was apparently mutual, at least judging by the contents of the Russian media, which is always a reflection of Putin. The Kremlin-controlled media has been as enthusiastic about Trump as it was hateful toward Hillary Clinton.

But that has started to change over the past few days. The new narrative is that Trump might be losing control and allowing “traitorous elements” inside the intelligence services to undermine him.

Unsurprisingly, this is quite similar to the line of attack selected by Trump himself. I noted last year that many of the Trump campaign’s talking points were nearly copy-pasted from Russian anti-American propaganda, a trend that has continued into his presidency. As for Trump himself, he keeps denying, with carefully chosen words, that he has any investments in Russia.

That may be the case, and we should see his taxes in order to confirm it, but at this point I’m more worried about what investments Russia may have in him.

If Flynn, Tillerson and others were on Putin’s wish list, seeing the general forced to resign might have come as a blow to the Kremlin.

But all is not lost, it seems. When Trump asked retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward to replace Flynn, Harward declined, saying that he wanted to be able to choose his own people. Trump had apparently insisted that Flynn deputy K.T. McFarland stay on, even though this stipulation resulted in the well-respected Harward declining the post.

Deputy National Security Adviser K.T. McFarland (2nd from r.) will be staying on. She’s seen with (l. to r.) Sean Spicer, Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway and Gen. Flynn at Jeff Sessions’ Feb. 9 swearing-in ceremony. (PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP)

One of McFarland’s claims to fame in recent years was her declaration in 2013 that Vladimir Putin should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Coincidence? Perhaps. A series of coincidences that all revolve around Putin? Well, I believe in coincidences, but I also believe in the KGB.

So what, you might reply. What is the problem if a new President wants to cozy up with Russia instead of traditional allies like Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom? And doesn’t it make sense for a pro-Putin American President to hire pro-Putin people? For the sake of argument, let’s say that Trump isn’t compromised in some way, and that he is sincere in wanting to have good relations with Russia.

This leads to another problem, however, in that there is no domestic or geopolitical reason for the United States to ally with Putin’s gangster state, and many reasons why it’s a terrible idea.

On Thursday, I was in Washington, D.C., to speak before a Senate subcommittee hearing on U.S. leadership, or lack thereof, in global democracy and human rights. Sen. Marco Rubio invited me and dissidents from Saudi Arabia and Cuba to speak about the role the United States could play in promoting liberty abroad, and, more importantly, why it should.

The world has become less free and less safe over the past decade as America has retreated. The power vacuum left by Obama’s retrenchment — fully supported by the American people — has been occupied by Iran, by Russia, by China, and other nations with little interest in human rights or democracy beyond how to crush them.

This sea change in the global balance of power hasn’t made America any stronger, any richer, or any safer. Instead, it has undermined the perception of the United States as a force for good in the world while making it less safe.

President Donald Trump points to a hat at his “Make America Great Again Rally” at Orlando Melbourne International Airport on Saturday. (CHRIS O’MEARA/AP)

As I said in my testimony at the hearing, there is no weapon or wall that is more powerful for American security than America being envied, imitated and admired around the world, as it was when I looked at it from afar from the Soviet Union. Admired not for being perfect, but for having the exceptional courage to always try to be better.

This projection of American values is impossible if you are allied with the likes of Putin, who cares only for power. There is no common ground, no common interests, with Putin’s Russia. Fighting Islamist terror is the usual refrain, but it is as much a fantasy now as it was when it was tried by George W. Bush and then by Barack Obama.

Russia is a terror sponsor, not a terror fighter, and making any security deal with a country that is currently invading Europe is preposterous. If Trump really wants to protect American interests, he will instead throw all possible support behind Putin’s victims, like arming Ukraine and bolstering NATO for Putin’s inevitable next aggression.

That next step may come in the Balkans, in the Middle East, or closer to Russia, but it will come. Putin needs constant conflict to justify his hold on total power in Russia, and if he can’t boast of a grand bargain with the new American President, he will need something else to distract the Russian people from their disintegrating homeland.

When Putin makes his move, what will Trump’s response be? Will he stand with American allies and American principles, or will he continue to display more loyalty to the hostile dictator who just hacked the American presidential election? My worst fear is that there are no policies or principles in this White House at all, and that Trump himself has no idea what he will do. And so we will all have to wait for the next tweet, and the next leak, and that is no way to run a country.<>

Kasparov is the chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation and the author of “Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be Stopped.”

MSNBC | AM JOY | Feb 18th, 2017

The aftermath of Flynn’s ouster

Is Russia mourning the loss of a friend to that state in the White House?

Joy Reid and her panel discuss.

Garry Kasparov speaks to US Senate subcommittee on human rights.

PRESS TO WATCH FULL TESTIMONY

It was an honor to be invited to speak to the US Senate subcommittee about US leadership on democracy and human rights yesterday. My prepared remarks are below, but I encourage you to follow the link and to watch the opening comments by Senators Rubio and Menendez, the other speakers, and the Q & A. (A transcript should be available there soon.) Senator Rubio’s opening remarks were very impressive and a reminder that the craziness happening in the White House these days is not all the US government does! The world is becoming a more dangerous, less free place every year, and a decade of American retreat is the major reason for this.

The heads of the three major American global democracy initiative organizations were the first panel, and I was joined by two other dissidents in the second panel, Dr. Halah Eldoseri of Saudi Arabia and Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado Machado of Cuba. I already knew El Sexto, as the Human Rights Foundation has supported him and his work. He was only recently released from prison for the fourth time, jailed and tortured as so many Cubans for nothing more than expressing his dissent against the Castro regime.

———————————-

Democracy and Human Rights: The Case for U.S. Leadership

Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Transnational Crime, Civilian Security, Democracy, Human Rights, and Global Women’s Issues

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Comments by Garry Kasparov: Chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and author of Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped

My thanks to Chairman Rubio and Senator Menendez for inviting me to be here today.

As one of the countless millions of people who were freed or protected from totalitarianism by the United States of America, it is easy for me to talk about the past. To talk about the belief of the American people and their leaders that this country was exceptional, and had special responsibilities to match its tremendous power. That a nation founded on freedom was bound to defend freedom everywhere. I could talk about the bipartisan legacy of this most American principle, from the Founding Fathers, to Democrats like Harry Truman, to Republicans like Ronald Reagan. I could talk about how the American people used to care deeply about human rights and dissidents in far-off places, and how this is what made America a beacon of hope, a shining city on a hill. America led by example and set a high standard, a standard that exposed the hypocrisy and cruelty of dictatorships around the world.

But there is no time for nostalgia. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the end of the Cold War, Americans, and America, have retreated from those principles, and the world has become much worse off as a result. American skepticism about America’s role in the world deepened in the long, painful wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and their aftermaths. Instead of applying the lessons learned about how to do better, lessons about faulty intelligence and working with native populations, the main outcome was to stop trying.

This result has been a tragedy for the billions of people still living under authoritarian regimes around the world, and it is based on faulty analysis. You can never guarantee a positive outcome—not in chess, not in war, and certainly not in politics. The best you can do is to do what you know is right and to try your best. I speak from experience when I say that the citizens of unfree states do not expect guarantees. They want a reason to hope and a fighting chance. People living under dictatorships want the opportunity for freedom, the opportunity to live in peace and to follow their dreams. From the Iraq War to the Arab Spring to the current battles for liberty from Venezuela to Eastern Ukraine, people are fighting for that opportunity, giving up their lives for freedom. The United States must not abandon them.

The United States and the rest of the free world have an unprecedented advantage in economic and military strength today. What is lacking is the will. The will to make the case to the American people, the will to take risks and invest in the long-term security of the country, and the world. This will require investments in aid, in education, in security that allow countries to attain the stability their people so badly need. Such investment is far more moral and far cheaper than the cycle of terror, war, refugees, and military intervention that results when America leaves a vacuum of power. The best way to help refugees is to prevent them from becoming refugees in the first place.

The Soviet Union was an existential threat, and this focused the attention of the world, and the American people. The existential threat today is not found on a map, but it is very real. The forces of the past are making steady progress against the modern world order. Terrorist movements in the Middle East, extremist parties across Europe, a paranoid tyrant in North Korea threatening nuclear blackmail, and, at the center of the web, an aggressive KGB dictator in Russia. They all want to turn the world back to a dark past because their survival is threatened by the values of the free world, epitomized by the United States. And they are thriving as the U.S. has retreated. The global freedom index has declined for ten consecutive years. No one likes to talk about the United States as a global policeman, but this is what happens when there is no cop on the beat.

American leadership begins at home, right here. America cannot lead the world on democracy and human rights if there is no unity on the meaning and importance of these things. Leadership is required to make that case clearly and powerfully. Right now, Americans are engaged in politics at a level not seen in decades. It is an opportunity for them to rediscover that making America great begins with believing America can be great.

The Cold War was won on American values that were shared by both parties and nearly every American. Institutions that were created by a Democrat, Truman, were triumphant forty years later thanks to the courage of a Republican, Reagan. This bipartisan consistency created the decades of strategic stability that is the great strength of democracies. Strong institutions that outlast politicians allow for long-range planning. In contrast, dictators can operate only tactically, not strategically, because they are not constrained by the balance of powers, but cannot afford to think beyond their own survival. This is why a dictator like Putin has an advantage in chaos, the ability to move quickly. This can only be met by strategy, by long-term goals that are based on shared values, not on polls and cable news.

The fear of making things worse has paralyzed the United States from trying to make things better. There will always be setbacks, but the United States cannot quit. The spread of democracy is the only proven remedy for nearly every crisis that plagues the world today. War, famine, poverty, terrorism–all are generated and exacerbated by authoritarian regimes. A policy of America First inevitably puts American security last.

Global American leadership is required because there is no one else, and because it is good for America. There is no weapon or wall that is more powerful for security than America being envied, imitated, and admired around the world. Admired not for being perfect, but for having the exceptional courage to always try to be better. Thank you.

Garry Kasparov criticizes Trump| CBS News | Feb 10th, 2017

 

NEW YORK — Garry Kasparov doesn’t like the way the relationship between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking shape.

“Oh, it’s a long list. You know? He has never criticized Vladimir Putin. He always, you know, came up with some kind of moral relativism. You know, comparing, you know, Putin’s actions with, you know, those of the United States,” Kasparov said.

Kasparov is referring specifically to an exchange Mr. Trump had with Bill O’Reilly of FOX News.

“Putin’s a killer,” O’Reilly said.

“There’s a lotta killers. We got a lotta killers. What do you think, our country’s so innocent?” Mr. Trump replied.

“You could hardly find a person that Trump didn’t touch. But Vladimir Putin was always an exception,” Kasparov said.

A former world chess champion, who became one of Putin’s most vocal critics in Russia and authored a new book on Putin’s regime, Kasparov was arrested and beaten multiple times. He finally fled the country four years ago, before fellow dissident Boris Nemstov was murdered and Vladimir Kara-Murza poisoned twice.

“Because the way Putin has been presenting the world to Russian people is ‘yes, we do certain things you may not like. So everybody does it. And now, see, president of the United States confirmed it.’” Kasparov said.

This week, after Kasparov criticized the idea of equivalence, Iowa Congressman Steve King questioned Kasparov’s concern.

“I would say Garry Kasparov, now he’s in the United States, but he lived a long time in Russia with a very loud megaphone of dissent against the regime. And he’s still alive and well,” King said in an interview with CNN.

Prominent Putin opponent fights for his life — again

“The representative of the United States and a member of the House, I mean, basically saying that, you know, if this person is alive, you know, that’s a proof that Vladimir Putin, who killed, by the way, many other people, you know, he’s still not that bad,” Kasparov said.

He says Putin’s goal is sew instability here and capitalize on the divide, which is why he finds the president’s remark so troubling.

“Putin’s regime cannot compete with the United States technologically or economically. Russian economy is in free fall. Putin needs conflict,” Kasparov said. “With Trump, again, we don’t know the motivations. And that what makes me shiver.”

© 2017 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Kasparov: Trump Always Finds Words to Defend Putin | Fev 6, 2017

Human Rights Foundation Chairman Garry Kasparov discusses President Donald Trump’s relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. sanctions against Russia. He speaks on “Bloomberg Markets: European Close.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Trump, Putin, and the dangers of fake news | The Paralax | Jan 16, 2017

by Garry Kasparov – January 16, 2017

Read original article at The Parallax

The past year was a somber one for democracies around the world, as distaste for political institutions and political elites reached a breaking point. Brexit triumphed over common sense, and united defense, in England. Extreme right-wing politicians continued their march to power in continental Europe. And the U.S. Electoral College victory of Donald Trump secured the election of a populist demagogue who openly criticizes the democratic system.

As we approach his inauguration, Trump is leading a public dispute over whether to believe WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange and Russian propaganda instead of the combined voices of U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies, elected officials, and the mainstream media across the ideological spectrum.

Although the exact scope and impact of its report is still under scrutiny, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence stated earlier this month that Russian operatives hacked and manipulated the U.S. presidential election of the United States, the historic bastion of republican democracy. Amid the reports of these more concrete attacks, it is easy to overlook the seriousness of another assault on a democracy’s ability to represent the people: that of disinformation.

Information “starvation” under closed regimes robs the public of its ability to make informed decisions, but the other extreme—a flood of disinformation—also has very harmful effects.

The costs of disseminating information have dropped in the Internet age. So, too, has the cost of election interference. Trump’s election confirmed that the power of the Internet to disseminate information at low costs and with even lower accountability can play a transformative role in strengthening or undermining the democratic process.

The pace of information generation has grown far faster than our ability to process it. Traditional sources like newspapers and cable news are rivaled by blogs and social media, where individuals can reach millions of people in seconds. And as volume risks drowning out quality, weapons such as “fake news” are becoming more powerful by the day.  

Computer hacks and propaganda are nothing new to international relations, but that doesn’t make interference acceptable. Beyond pushing agendas, propaganda is being used to distract, confuse, and generally weaken people’s ability to perform the necessary duties of citizens in a democracy. As misinformation proliferates, people are less likely to trust anything they read.

The goal of disinformation is not only to provide wrong information or to promote a specific agenda. It is to devalue the entire concept of truth, and to instill a state of perpetual doubt and confusion.

Instead of asking whether disinformation will persist—because it will, as long as it is deemed effective—we must ask how we will defend ourselves against it.

Information “overload” has led people to resort to their own methods of media filtering. Some people simply shut it all out, essentially starving themselves of important information and thus becoming easily manipulated voters. Others, struggling to verify the validity of the news they read, might pay attention only to the source, in an effort to conserve mental resources and avoid drowning in a sea of information.

While the development of personal networks of trusted sources is useful, it can result in the prioritization of tribes over democracy, with instinct playing the deciding role in which facts to believe and which to dismiss.

This is, indeed, a central paradox of the Internet age: Easy access to a great deal of information does not necessarily translate to greater openness and transparency. It can, in fact, become easier to hide the truth.

At this point, for example, most people don’t differentiate accurately between the lost emails on Hillary Clinton’s private server and the DNC emails stolen by Russia and distributed by WikiLeaks. And after skimming so many related stories for so long, can anyone accurately describe Trump’s real relationship with the Russian oligarchy?

When we are forced by overload to substitute information and facts with impressions and feelings, we become much easier to manipulate.

READ MORE BY KASPAROV AT THE PARALLAX

Tech’s power to promote good or evil depends on who controls it

Vladimir Putin has long understood how to tap into human psychology and use disinformation to advance his goals. The vast troll factories and covert FSB operations he oversees aim, first and foremost, to overwhelm media consumers. Once people are thoroughly frustrated and distrustful of all sources, it becomes easier to prey on their basic human impulses, such as invoking nationalism, fear of the other, or glorification of the past.

The goal of disinformation is not only to provide wrong information or to promote a specific agenda. It is to devalue the entire concept of truth, and to instill a state of perpetual doubt and confusion.

We cannot quantify the impact of Putin’s techniques on the vote, but we can say with certainty that his meddling helped expand the existing divides in American society into more hostile identity groups. Driven by fear and uncertainty, many Americans retreated into the familiar corners of religion, race, party, and class rather than embracing shared ideals.

I do not advocate for government or media unchallenged by the people, but I do believe that a balance, and a degree of good faith in institutions that deserve it, must be maintained. In democracy, there must be a place for truth—a space that allows for dialogue, understanding, and cooperation—and sincere bipartisan efforts to reveal that truth.

Unfortunately, no effective presidential candidate emerged to push Americans toward unity; instead, the United States now has a president-elect who is all too willing to fan the flames of division to advance his personal success. I hope that the United States can make a collective resolution to revive the values of openness, integrity, and collaboration that keep democracy strong.

Trump won the election; there is no turning back on that. The key will be to constantly remind him and his supporters that he was elected president of a democratic republic, not anointed emperor, and that the rule of law is why the United States has survived and thrived for so long.

Along with many other countries, the United States is witnessing a resurgence of forces that call for a return to the dark past, with sectarian beliefs and regional powers triumphing over universal values. The battle between modernity and archaism is nothing new, but it is now playing out in cyberspace, and those who reject progress have equal access to the fruits of technology.

To combat chaos and the steady undermining of our institutions, we must remember that the foundation of democracy—that people must have a voice in their governance—must remain beyond question.

While free discussion is a key component of liberty, we must also be alert to the threats of hostile propaganda, news overload, and weaponized information. We cannot rely on public or private institutions to rescue us, unless we also act to rescue ourselves by becoming informed, active end users of information and technology. We must inform ourselves, and we must remain critical of our sources, even when we agree with their conclusions.

Many proposed actions would, in practice, turn out to be more dangerous than the disease they aim to cure. Infringing on the freedom of speech is more harmful than disseminating fake news, so be careful about which pills you ingest. Censorship is seldom announced as censorship, and nearly every law that restricts the freedoms of citizens is first proposed as way to protect them.

Government agencies should be limited to enforcing a fair playing field and protecting citizens from exploitation and fraud. They should attempt to create a level of transparency that empowers people to make informed decisions, just as regulated food labels detailing ingredients and nutritional data are intended to do.

Making facts available isn’t enough. Entertaining narratives that confirm our biases can be irresistible, especially if they come from people we support. Conspiracy theories and anti-establishment contrarianism are always popular, especially with people who, like Trump, are eager to portray themselves as outsiders.

Perhaps we can start with a blueprint for how the media ought to behave in an era when simply reporting both sides of a story does not make for objective journalism. Along with what, how often, and how loudly people say things, we need a greater focus on whether what they are saying is true. We can’t simply block propaganda without harming free speech, and we can never stop people from believing what they want to believe. But if we make an effort to inform and thus protect ourselves and others, we can push back slowly and steadily against the fakes and the frauds.

The credibility of today’s democracies depends on reinstating the value of truth—something that no number of social-media followers or cybercapabilities should be able to subvert. At the moment, we are experiencing a cultural crisis in which propaganda has a tactical advantage. It is easy to lie; finding the truth requires more effort. But that effort is the only way to defend ourselves from exploitation and our democracies from subversion.

Public legislation, corporate policy, and technology can’t get us through this crisis alone. We, as individuals, need to raise awareness and take action.

Truth is a vaccine against propaganda and political manipulation. A society’s overall level of immunity to these threats increases as more people absorb the truth. And like that shot in the arm, the truth can be painful for a second, but the benefits far outweigh the pain.

Kasparov warns of a Trump-Putin alliance | Yahoo News | Jan 4th, 2017

Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a Russian dissident now living in exile in the United States, warned today that the world could be what he called “entering a very dark ages” unless President-elect Donald Trump reverses course and stands up to Vladimir Putin.

In an interview with Yahoo News chief investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, Kasparov said that Putin and his top aides, including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, are eagerly anticipating Trump’s presidency because they believe he will cut a “grand bargain” with Russia that will expand its sphere of influence.

“They are all waiting for Trump,” Kasparov said. “They believe Trump will change everything … and [give] in to all of Putin’s demands — recognizing Russian annexation of Crimea,” as well as undercutting NATO and “sacrificing the Baltic states.”

“I think that’s a crime,” Kasparov added. “Unless the United States is willing to restore the balance, we are entering a very dark ages.”

Kasparov, the author of a new book, “Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped,” has been a thorn in Putin’s side for years. While he still lived in Moscow, he helped to spearhead the political opposition to the Russian leader, but he moved to New York several years ago, because, he said in the interview, he feared for his life.

The Senate Armed Services Committee is planning hearings Thursday on Russia’s hacking attacks against the American political system — a move that Kasparov said was part of the Russian leader’s strategy to undermine Western democracy. He urged U.S. officials to retaliate with far stronger measures than President Obama’s expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats and sanctions on four top military intelligence officials.

“You have to go after Putin’s wealth,” he said. “You have to demonstrate how much money has been stolen from Russia. American intelligence — they know exactly where this money is being kept. So they have to go after the core of Putin’s power, his ability to manipulate the hundreds of billions of dollars taken out of Russia in the hands of Russian oligarchs. He uses this cash for his clandestine operations. You have to send a message.”

To illustrate how dangerous Putin is, Kasparov cited the assassination of his good friend and fellow opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, who was shot in the back four times while crossing a bridge near the Kremlin on Feb. 27, 2015. Nemtsov at the time was organizing protests against Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine. (Five Chechens are now on trial for the murder, although no motive has been established. Russian officials have suggested the murder was a “provocation” that was intended to benefit the opposition to Putin.)

“He was a great man, the bravest of all of us,” Kasparov said of Nemtsov. “He actually told me in 2013, ‘Leave the country, Gary, it’s no longer safe for you to stay here. But he stayed. … He believed he had to stay in Russia and fight Putin. And he was blasting him on a daily basis. And he was murdered in front of the Kremlin — an opposition leader being shot in the front of the Kremlin, where you have more video surveillance than Fort Knox, with all the cameras going blind. It tells you who did it. It’s just another crime that shows you Putin will not stop short of doing anything to stay in power.”

Kasparov was asked if he feared for his life.

“Look, I live in New York for that reason,” he replied. “There are certain countries in the world that I don’t visit. But there’s nothing I can do. If Boris and many others fought [Putin], I have to do my duty.”

Nemtsov, he added, had often said that while Putin was Russia’s problem, “eventually he is going to be everybody’s problem. So if Vladimir Putin is everybody’s problem, and the sooner we realize there is no peace as long as he stays in the Kremlin, the less people will be killed.”

Kasparov with Anderson Cooper @AC360 | Dec 12th, 2016

On December 12, 2016 Garry sat down with Anderson Cooper to discuss Putin, Trump and Russian hacking attack during the US election.