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17.10.07
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Kasparov’s Crusade
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By Daria Solovieva
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The Other Russia’s Presidential Candidate goes Abroad
“Does Garry Kasparov have an American passport?” a homemaker from United States called in to ask. At a phone-in at the Echo Moskvy radio station on October 4, listeners wasted no time peppering Russian presidential candidate Garry Kasparov, with questions on his close ties to the West.
It seems a strange move for Kasparov to launch a book tour in the United States amidst the widespread criticism, weeks after the opposition parties under the guise of The Other Russia coalition nominated him as their candidate for the presidency on September 30.
It is also questionable whether a warm welcome overseas, including a conference on Capitol Hill organized by Radio Free Europe and a book tour is really helping The Other Russia’s cause to generate broader support at home.
Surrounded by human rights activists and denouncing Vladimir Putin’s regime on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Kasparov seemed more of a dissident than a viable political candidate. "If Putin behaves like Lukashenko or Mugabe, then he should be treated like Lukashenko and Mugabe," he told a group of U.S. Congressmen, reporters, and human rights activists on Oct. 10.
The same day, Russia's Central Elections Commission rejected Kasparov as an official presidential candidate.
Kasparov seemed to anticipate the legal obstacles and his own marginal role in the Russian elections. "We are not trying to win the elections,” he said. “We are only trying to have elections." Still, he admitted, no matter what the critics may call it, Russia remains a democracy.
Despite the legal obstacles – and being a tough sell for a majority of the Russian public who support Putin – Kasparov remains remarkably optimistic. In his new book on applying chess strategy to politics and business, Life Imitating Chess, Kasparov recalls his legendary 1980s match with Anatoly Karpov. “There I spent months a step away from total disaster, a situation that required an entirely new strategy, one based more on survival than triumph. I did it; I survived to fight another day, and the next time we met I was victorious.”
Putin is overwhelmingly credited with rebuilding the power of the state, fighting corruption, and reinstating the government’s ability to gather taxes and the courts’ growth in power and prestige. But Kasparov sees few positives coming out of Putin’s regime. “I see no strategically positive policies pursued by Putin’s government,” he told Echo Moskvy, arguing that the regime will crumble in two years, because it has failed to invest in “infrastructure.”
At a book signing in Bethesda, Maryland, on Oct. 16, Kasparov seemed even bolder. “Two weeks of no censorship and we’ll bring this regime down,” he told a welcoming audience of about 60. His speech, ranging from chess strategy to his political agenda, culminated in a standing ovation.
Taking on the issue of the economic gap created by petro-rubles, Kasparov said that the new ruling elite make twice as much per year as Russia itself. “By 2006, the 100 richest Russians were earning $340 billion, which is 30 percent more than the annual revenue of the entire country,” he said.
Even so, most analysts and Russians alike disagree that Putin is wrong for Russian democracy. “Putin has his faults,” commentator Mary Dejevsky wrote in Britain’s The Independent, “But he leads a country that is richer, stronger, and far more at ease with itself than it was when he took office eight years ago.”
While Kasparov repeatedly dismisses all attempts by the Russian media to portray him as a tool of the West, the recent visit and his sources of funding tell a different story. According to Gordon Smith, the Director of International Affairs Program at the University of South Carolina, “one of Kasparov’s purposes in Washington is fundraising.”
The Other Russia’s web site, www.theotherrussia.org, is supported by the U.S.-based non-profit Foundation for Democracy in Russia (FDR).
Prior to leaving for the United States, Kasparov called the element of surprise The Other Russia’s greatest strength. “He is a provocateur,” says Smith of Kasparov’s appearance in Washington. “He stirs up people and he offers an alternative voice.” |
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