GRANDMASTER PLOTS STRATEGY AGAINST PUTIN’S ‘DEADLY’ REGIME
by Sebastian Smith
The Australian (Australia)
All-round Country Edition
June 6, 2007 Wednesday
GARRY Kasparov is running an hour late. But when he finally appears,
exuding nervous energy, the chess genius turned Kremlin opponent
sounds like a man with no time to lose.
"We have a chance to save the country," he declares. "This regime is
deadly. The regime survives, the country dies."
On the eve of the Group of Eight summit starting in Germany today,
Kasparov urged world powers to join his campaign against Russia’s
President Vladimir Putin, whom he likened to the rulers of Belarus
or Zimbabwe.
"Putin can’t be treated as the leader of a free country," Kasparov,
44, says at his Moscow office, 1.6km from Red Square. The West "must
draw a line in the sand".
Many in Russia see this small, compact man with bushy eyebrows as,
at best, a quixotic figure.
Judging by polls indicating widespread support for Putin, Kasparov’s
crusade to prevent Putin from easing a successor into the Kremlin in
the March 2008 presidential elections looks doomed. Putin recently
scoffed at Kasparov’s opposition coalition, the Other Russia,
as marginal.
Yet in Russia’s strangely unbalanced political landscape, the chess
grandmaster has emerged as the most prominent opposition leader in
the country.
Young Putin supporters dressed in white coats may hound Kasparov
as a lunatic, but the Kremlin appears genuinely rattled and Western
capitals are watching closely.
Born to Armenian and Jewish parents in what was Soviet Azerbaijan,
Kasparov ruled world chess for two decades before retiring in 2005
to focus on Russian politics, which he already knew as a supporter
of Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s.
He concedes Other Russia is small, weak and poorly financed.
"For our organisation, political survival — and for some members
not only political survival — is a major issue," he says.
The Kremlin has de facto control over almost all television and vast
security forces, including the OMON riot police used in vast numbers
against tiny Other Russia protest marches. But in such weakness
Kasparov sees possibilities that might seem fanciful were they not
from the mind of an undeniably great strategist. The inability so far
of Russia’s fragmented opposition to unite around a single candidate
for next year’s presidential election is good, he says.
"When you are facing overwhelming force — again, that’s my chess
experience — you don’t want to simplify your position. You don’t
want to make it plain," he says.
"You want to keep it complicated because any mistake that cannot be
reversed could blow you off the board."
Kasparov and his activists have faced police beatings or arrest while
trying to hold peaceful demonstrations. Many have been detained or
prevented from travelling even before reaching protests.
"They’re stepping up the pressure on us," Kasparov says. "It’s a
nightmare and not everyone can keep up. We have reports of people
giving in."
Several bodyguards accompany him everywhere in Russia, even in Moscow.
His wife and seven-month-old daughter live in New York.
"Not that you can protect yourself against a real assassination
attempt but, still, that creates extra problems," he says.
"The rule here is that there are no rules. No rules is a rule, too."