Slashdot Mirror
Chess Grandmaster Kasparov Versus President Putin
An anonymous reader writes "The Times of London has an article on how Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion, is using his fame and intellect in an attempt to defeat President Putin at the presidential elections in March 2008. Kasparov believes that Putin is virtually a dictator who is dismantling democracy and returning Russia to an authoritarian regime. Some high-profile Putin critics, such as Alexander Litvinenko, have been the victims of unsolved murders, and Kasparov is aware of the dangers: 'I can calculate the possibilities as a chess player and I have to be honest and say that our chances are not high. But I take this as a moral duty, and when you do something out of moral duty, then who cares?'" From the article: "[Kasparov] will not be a contender for the presidency but [his political umbrella group] The Other Russia aims to create the conditions under which an anti-Putin candidate can win. It appears, however, to be an uneven contest against a man who enjoys 80 per cent approval ratings. Most Russians want Mr. Putin to overturn a constitutional bar on a third term in office. Many will back whomever Mr. Putin endorses to succeed him."
Nah, I've seen Kasparov on TV enough times to recognize his personality type as a Grandstander, not merely a Grandmaster of chess.
:P
I'm Asian and not Russian, but I see that Europe has a long history of meddling in Russian affairs. Europe supported the Bolsheviks from outside in order to harass the Czar. Then during the Cold War, they flip-flop to support anti-communist dissidents. Well, you can't have it all ways and still stay credible.
No matter who's in power in Russia, the Europeans will always support the opposing guy. That's just part of their own chess game, and not any ethics.
When those Chechen gunmen took the schoolchildren hostage, the Europeans were the first to quickly go out of their way to blame security forces for the bloodbath. Naturally, the nutcase gunmen shouldn't be blamed, and should instead be portrayed as trying to resolve the situation peacefully, only to be thwarted by the evil aggressive security men. Oh, of course, anybody who takes schoolchildren hostage is out to do good.
I really find in myself a growing distrust of Europeans, because they keep getting louder and more shrill in trying to break down rival powers -- all in the name of "social justice", of course. I don't see these people as having some inherent moral highground, especially not when they've been the architects of 2 world wars.
It's looking more and more like the Cold War was just a temporary interruption of the wider European Colonial Era. Now that the brief Cold War interlude has passed, it's time to resume European hegemony through gamesmanship. Time for the age-old European pastime of Divide-and-Rule.
Are you a nutcase or what?
What Putin's enemies? The first time I heard Litvinenko's name was from the Western controlled media when he "fell ill." That was the guy who wrote for Chechenpress; the guy who accused Putin of being a paedophile; the guy who accused Putin of 9/11, Madrid and London bombings. You're a bloody idiot if you fell for that media spin that some schizophrenic is an "enemy of Putin" or matters in any way. There's one more "dissident" (coincidentally, Jewish as well), Valeria Novodvorskaya, who is as mad if not madder.
And no, it hasn't been "standard Soviet practice" in the past.
You're wasting your breath on crusader Americans. If they can't discredit the reality of Putin's popular support, they'll put down the intelligence/priority/human worthiness of his supporters. They've decided to not like your system, and will not stop disliking you until you bark under the American tree.