Reuters, UK
July 4 2005

INTERVIEW – Chess master Kasparov takes on Russia’s Putin

By Christian Lowe

MOSCOW (Reuters) – In 20 years at the top of the chess world, he used
his laser-like focus to destroy his rivals. Now Garry Kasparov is
turning his fearsome brainpower on a new opponent — Russian
President Vladimir Putin.

Four months after retiring from competitive chess, Russian native
Kasparov has re-emerged as the leader of his own opposition political
movement dedicated to destroying what he calls Putin’s “growing
dictatorship”.

Chess legend Gary Kasparov is seen wearing a pair of ‘X3D’ viewing
glasses at a news conference in New York City in this November 2003
file photo. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)
“I don’t think intellect harms you in politics,” he said in the
cramped office of his United Civil Front, flanked by brown paper
parcels of anti-Putin leaflets.

“I’m building a strategy,” he said. “Today our goal is not to lose
immediately. Not to get mated in one. Our goal is to survive.”

Kasparov, 42, is still ranked world chess number one and was
undefeated world champion for 8 years in a row.

But he has swapped the hushed auditoriums where he played chess for
boisterous meetings with voters in the Russian provinces. At one, in
North Ossetia last week, he had eggs hurled at him.

Kasparov is unbowed. Like many in Russia, he believes Putin will try
to stay on when his final term ends in 2008 — the Kremlin denies any
such plan — and has set himself the task of mobilising people to
stop that happening.

“We want to unify all activists who believe the Putin regime is the
greatest danger for Russia,” he said. “We have to win. We have to
make sure that in 2008 there is an open, fair contest. We have to
restore democracy.”

PENDULUM SWINGS

Kasparov says Putin’s administration has stamped on political
freedoms, swiped businesses from their rightful owners and failed to
deliver on promises to transform living standards and end a
separatist war in Chechnya.

It is the standard liberal critique that to date has fallen on deaf
ears — with Russia’s economy flooded with petrodollars and incomes
at their highest for years, Putin is popular and the opposition is in
disarray.

But Kasparov says he has spotted a chink in his opponent’s defence.

“Putin was a president of hope … But when the hope evaporates, the
pendulum goes in the opposite direction and that’s what is happening
now,” he said.

“(Many people) don’t believe this government is capable of bringing
Russia into a better future.”

“So far, all this turbulence hasn’t affected Putin … But the trend
cannot be guessed wrong,” he said. “(It is) the radicalisation of
Russian society.”

Kasparov said a revolution — he described it as “showtime” — could
happen as early as next year.

“Most of the crises that are getting hot now in Russia, they could
explode,” he said. “Nobody wants to see (this) in Russia but this is
one of the scenarios.”

UNLIKELY PRESIDENT

Kasparov said he is not interested, for now, in running for political
office. Hunger strikes, protests and walkouts will be the favoured
tactics of his group, not elections, he says.

In any case, he makes an unlikely Russian president.

His radical politics put him outside the mainstream and his
Jewish-Armenian parentage may be a handicap in a country where
parties with anti-Semitic and nationalist sympathies hold more than
10 percent of the seats in parliament.

Kasparov has not abandoned chess completely.

He is working on two books about the sport and at night he takes on
other players in online blitz chess games. “Of course, not under my
real name,” he said.

But he says he does not miss the sport that gave him fame, wealth and
unrivalled achievement.

“I’m too busy,” he said. “In my life I am happy and satisfied when my
presence makes a difference.”