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Russian Police Seize Kasparov

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Russian police seized Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess champion, for staging a political rally against Vladimir Putin. IBM's Deep Blue computer was the first to beat a world champion when it defeated Kasparov, who is one of the strongest players in history." He's also been a giant critic of the Russian administration which is increasingly restricting free speech.

9 of 495 comments (clear)

  1. In Soviet Russia by EaglemanBSA · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In Soviet Russia, they sieze dissidents. What, you were expecting a joke? 'Cuz this isn't funny.

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    1. Re:In Soviet Russia by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In Putin's Russia, they seize dissidents.
      In Soviet Russia, they shoot dissidents.
      Not quite there yet, guys.

  2. gratuitous IBM inclusion by gargletheape · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Surely a story about the greatest chessplayer of all time, and a key campaigner for civil liberties in Soviet Russia counts as "news for nerds" without some Deep Blue window-dressing. Do we really need to fake-tag this story as being about supercomputers to get it here?

  3. Re:obigatory joke by SlashThat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Actually this might benefit Kasparov's cause. He's a respected person both in Russia and abroad, and a move like this could provoke a stronger protest against Putin. I trust Kasparov has calculated this 6 moves ahead :)

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  4. Re:Someone sieze that bitch Hillary by rednip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wish our president had such powers to sieze anti-American politicians like Clinton I thought that was funny as hell and was about to moderate it as such, but the sad thing is, I'm not sure if hes kidding. As I've heard people say in all seriousness such things.
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  5. Re:obligatory joke by Aminion · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I hope that you are right, but if the world hasn't been able to do anything about Russia's horrible crimes against the people of Chechnya, how big are the chances that Kasparov can make a difference? Also, don't forget that Putin's approval ratings are pretty high even if you disbelieve the official statistics from the Kremlin, i.e. the Russians themselves might not even care about this and that is what's really required here. You can't force changes like this from the outside (are you going to sanction Russia? Use military force? Hardly), it has to come from the people of Russia.

  6. Re:Don't Worry by fastest+fascist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    3. It was an honest opinion, expressed in support of a guy doing things how Bush would like to, if he could.

  7. Agreed by einhverfr · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I would add that Iran is clearly far more democratic than Russia is today. Russia is more like Iraq under Saddam, where elections occur but nobody has any possibility of being elected except Putin. Despite meddling in the elections by the Council of Guardians, there are actual and real political dynamics which exist in Iran today. No such real dynamics occur under Russia today.

    The big difference is that, unlike Saddam, Putin actually does have weapons of mass destruction.

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    1. Re:Agreed by zzidre · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Don't get me wrong, but when a son takes the presidency after his father, only delayed by a man whose wife is likely to take it over after them all, it really looks like the difference is only that there are two elite groupings instead of one.