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Kasparov makes opening move in quest for Russian revolution

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  • Kasparov makes opening move in quest for Russian revolution

    Kasparov makes opening move in quest for Russian revolution
    By Jeremy Page

    The Times, UK
    Aug 3 2005

    The chess champion is campaigning to prevent President Putin from
    standing for a third term

    IF CHESS is mental torture, as Garry Kasparov once said, then Russian
    politics has not been much kinder to him since his dramatic debut
    this year.

    In the past five months he has been hit over the head with a chess
    board, roughed up by police, pelted with eggs and tomato ketchup,
    and bombarded with verbal abuse.

    All this after he announced in March that he was retiring from
    competitive chess to dedicate himself to the political fight against
    President Putin.

    Mr Kasparov, 42, is not used to being the underdog, having dominated
    chess since 1985 when he become the youngest world champion.

    Yet, far from being intimidated, he is throwing himself into the
    toughest - and riskiest - contest of his life with all the flair and
    aggression that made him the greatest chess player to date.

    "There's only one chance for this country - if the regime collapses,"
    he told The Times. "If the Government doesn't change, then we must
    change the Government."

    Unlike most of Mr Putin's opponents, he is not talking about running
    in the next parliamentary elections in 2007 or standing for president
    in 2008.

    He is travelling around Russia calling openly for a peaceful revolution
    like those that rocked Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine last year. The
    trigger, he predicts, will be an attempt by the Kremlin to change the
    constitution to allow President Putin to serve a third term instead
    of stepping down in 2008.

    "Next year the country will go through a political crisis which will
    decide the future of the country," he said. "We're talking about
    mass protests."

    Such talk is highly provocative - if not seditious - when the Kremlin
    has spent much of the past five years silencing political opponents.

    In May Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the oil tycoon, was jailed for nine
    years in what was widely seen as punishment for meddling in politics.


    Then Mikhail Kasyanov, a former Prime Minister, became the target of
    a corruption probe last month after hinting at running for President
    in 2008.

    So far, the worst Mr Kasparov has suffered is being hit on the head
    with a chess board by a youth activist in April and roughed up by
    police outside the courthouse where Mr Khodorkovsky was on trial in
    May. "I hope that if something really goes bad, we'll hear more than
    mumbling from the West," Mr Kasparov said.

    In public, Russian officials have responded to his challenge with
    disdain - dismissing him as a political non-entity who appeals only
    to the West. Many political analysts agree, saying most Russians have
    not heard about his campaign and would not support him because of his
    Caucasian and Jewish roots. He was born in Azerbaijan to an Armenian
    mother and a Jewish father.

    But at the same time, officials are going to extraordinary lengths
    to prevent such a respected celebrity from entering the political fray.

    That much became clear when Mr Kasparov went to southern Russia
    in June to drum up grass-roots support in Dagestan, North Ossetia,
    Stavropol and Rostov.

    "Unlike my critics, I go to the Russian regions," he said. "It's the
    only way to learn the situation in my country because the media is
    under the Kremlin's strict control," he said.

    In Dagestan, local authorities blocked him from meeting refugees from
    neighbouring Chechnya and even tried to stop him giving prizes at a
    children's chess tournament.

    In North Ossetia, a meeting with Beslan residents in a cultural
    centre was cancelled after officials hastily arranged a showing of
    the cartoon Madagascar there. Then he was hit with eggs covered in
    tomato ketchup in Vladikavkaz, the regional capital. Local officials
    accused him of trying to exploit last year's Beslan school siege,
    even though the victims' mothers said that they were keen to meet him.

    At his next stops, in Stavropol and Rostov, the airports refused to
    let his charter plane land. Hotels in Stavropol would not accept him
    and meetings in both places had to be held outside after the venues
    developed "technical" problems.

    Mr Kasparov says that he believes local authorities were under orders
    from Mr Putin's representative in the region, Dmitry Kozak. "If they
    act in this way, they are scared of anyone talking with the people,"
    Mr Kasparov said. "If people don't like my ideas, fine, but at least
    let them speak with me."

    Mr Kasparov dabbled in politics in the 1990s and, early last year,
    was voted chairman of Committee 2008: Free Choice, a liberal group
    dedicated to ensuring the next presidential election is free and fair.

    But his real political awakening came after the Beslan siege, when
    the Kremlin announced plans to abolish direct elections for regional
    governors.

    This year he formed his own, more militant, group called the United
    Civil Front.

    "It's extreme because the situation is extreme," he said. "The
    Government is violating the Russian constitution and limiting our
    rights to influence the electoral process."


    MEET THE KING

    Born April 13, 1963, in Baku, Azerbaijan

    November 1985 Beat Anatoly Karpov to become the youngest world champion
    at 22

    2000 Lost world title to Russian grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik.
    Retained world number one ranking until 2005

    1996 Beat Deep Blue, IBM's supercomputer, but lost to its upgraded
    version the following year

    March 2005 Retired from chess to devote time to Committee 2008:
    Free Choice, campaigning against Government of President Putin

    THEY SAY

    'I'm a grandmaster but an awful lot of people are grandmasters these
    days. Kasparov and I have the same title, but it's a different planet.'
    Jonathan Rowson, British chess champion, July 2005

    'The future of chess lies in the hands of this young man.' Mikhail
    Botvinnik, former world champion (when Kasparov was 11)

    'If Kasparov won, he would feel like a god afterwards, and if he
    lost, his dejection and rage would resist all forms of consolation.'
    Fred Waitzkin, American writer, on the 1990 Kasparov-Karpov match

    'Forget the prize money. The fate of humanity is on the line, at least
    in Garry Kasparov's head.' Maurice Ashley, the only African-American
    grandmaster, on the Deep Blue-Kasparov final in 1997

    HE SAYS

    'I have done everything I could in chess and more. Now I plan to use
    my intellect and strategic thoughts in Russian politics.'

    'I believe that the country is moving in the wrong direction,
    therefore it is necessary to help Russia, to help Russian citizens,
    to make the country comfortable, just and free.'

    'I devote a certain amount of time to Russian politics, as every
    decent person should do who opposes the dictator Vladimir Putin.'
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