The Moscow Times reported that chess grandmaster and political activist Garry Kasparov has been added to Russia’s list of “terrorists and extremists” by Rosfinmonitoring, Russia’s financial watchdog on Wednesday. Kasparov has long been a critic of President Vladimir Putin and consistently condemned Russia’s military offensive in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s chess player, Sergei Kasparov, has been placed on the list of “foreign agents” by Russia‘s justice ministry in 2022. Kasparov, who fled Russia in 2014 due to fear of persecution, has been residing in the United States for almost a decade. The label is seen as a tool by the Kremlin to stifle opponents, alongside the term used to describe enemies of the state. Kasparov has urged the West to maintain support for Kyiv, stating that defeating Moscow is a “pre-condition” for a democratic change in Russia.
Top chess player Kasparov put on the list of radical Russians
The 60-year-old Kasparov left Russia in 2014 because of fear of retaliation. A request for comment was not immediately answered by his media office.
Kasparov and former oil billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky were included on the Russian justice ministry’s list of “foreign agents” in 2022, putting them under an onerous bureaucracy that included financial reporting. Lucy Papachristou wrote the reports and John Davison and Kevin Liffey edited them.
2014 saw Kasparov leave Russia due to fear of retaliation. The Russian legal ministry listed Kasparov and the late oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky as “foreign agents” in 2022, putting them under onerous financial reporting and bureaucratic requirements. Rights organizations claim that the word, along with the term “foreign agent” used to characterize those it views as state foes, is just another tool the Kremlin uses to intimidate its opponents.
Garry Kasparov considers being put on Moscow’s terrorism list as an “honor”
Kasparov, a chess player, has been a vocal opponent of Russia’s Putin regime in exile. He has been on the State Sponsors of Terror list, a U.S. list of countries that have repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism. Kasparov’s book, “Winter is Coming,” published in 2015, argued that Putin and other “enemies of the free world” must be stopped.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, Kasparov and other public figures founded the Anti-War Committee, calling on the international community to declare Russian leaders “war criminals.”
Rights groups argue that this label is used by the Kremlin to silence critics and enemies of the state. Kasparov has lived in the United States for over a decade, focusing on political activism. In February, he urged the West to support Kyiv and suggested Ukraine’s defeat as a “pre-condition” for a democratic transition in Russia.
However, The Kremlin uses the term “foreign agent” to stifle opponents, including chess player Kaspachenko, who has resided in the United States for nearly a decade. Kaspachenko urged the West to maintain support for Kyiv, stating that Ukraine needed to defeat Moscow as a “pre-condition” for a democratic change in Russia, highlighting the Kremlin’s use of this label to stifle opponents.
During their playing career, Kasparov and Karpov were known for their aggressive style of chess. However, seeing Kasparov behind bars stirred emotion in Karpov, who believed that Russia should not act like this and that Kasparov’s offense wasn’t serious enough to put a world champion in jail.
