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Tert.am, Armenia
Jan 7 2012
Russia's Kasparov plots his next move against Putin
12:18 - 07.01.12
By Bloomberg Businessweek
Former chess champion Garry Kasparov is too busy on the phone to
answer the door of his mother's apartment just off Moscow's historic
Old Arbat street. Instead, his elegantly attired mother, Klara,
appears. Fifty minutes later she announces the interview's end, and
Kasparov rushes off to another meeting to plan a soft revolution
against his nemesis, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.
Five years ago, Russia ignored Kasparov's warnings against Putin's
creeping authoritarianism: The sparsely attended rallies his group
organized were brutally broken up by police. In 2008 he and other
reformers founded Solidarity, an umbrella group of liberal opposition
movements. Kasparov pressed on, attacking the regime on his blog and
website as well as on radio.
Then came Putin's September announcement that he would run for
president in March to retake the office he held from 2000 to 2008.
Middle-class Russians suddenly woke up. Mass protests rocked Moscow a
week after the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections, which were tainted by
widespread allegations of fraud.
On Dec. 24, Kasparov addressed a rally in the capital that drew tens
of thousands onto the streets for the second time in a few weeks.
`Less than a month ago there was a different country,' he says. `The
next three months could contribute to more dramatic changes.'
Although the opposition to Putin, a loose coalition ranging from
nationalists to Solidarity's liberals, has no real leader, Kasparov is
the only one in the movement who commands global recognition. He is
also part of a key triumvirate organizing the protests.
Solidarity insists that the government dissolve Parliament now and
delay the Mar. 4 presidential vote to hold new elections under more
democratic rules. Putin has tried to appease the protesters while
rejecting their key demand of annulling the results of the December
parliamentary vote, which handed a wafer-thin majority to the ruling
party. Outgoing President Dmitry A. Medvedev is enacting laws to
ensure greater competition in national elections scheduled for 2016
and 2018. Putin's ex-Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, has held out the
possibility of new parliamentary polls in 18 months or two years.
`Obviously, they will be working on different countermoves,' says
Kasparov, who became the youngest world chess champion at age 22 and
was a top player for 18 years. `We have a lot of ingredients for
change, but we also have a very powerful system that wants anything
but change.' Like other activists, Kasparov has spent time in jail. He
employs a bodyguard who controls access to his mother's place, while
his wife and 5-year-old daughter live in New York.
The risk now for Putin is that the authorities will resort to fraud to
ensure him a convincing first-round victory. If that happens, more
protests likely will erupt, weakening him. Alexei Navalny, 35, a
blogger who targets corruption at state companies and was jailed
briefly last month, is already calling for a million people to rally
across the country in February. Navalny, an ally of Solidarity but not
a member, makes no secret of his presidential ambitions. He `is smart,
intelligent, well-educated, and a person who is liked by a lot of
Russians,' says Kasparov.
If Putin is concerned about the opposition's show of strength, he
isn't showing it, says Sergei Markov, a former lawmaker in the prime
minister's United Russia Party who is an adviser to the Kremlin.
`Putin has a very tough stance, he's very sure of himself, and he's
sure of the support of the majority of the population,' says Markov.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, says the Prime Minister is
convinced he will win outright, which requires more than 50 percent
support. `Any campaign which doesn't have as its aim victory on the
first round is a bad campaign,' he says.
Jan 7 2012
Russia's Kasparov plots his next move against Putin
12:18 - 07.01.12
By Bloomberg Businessweek
Former chess champion Garry Kasparov is too busy on the phone to
answer the door of his mother's apartment just off Moscow's historic
Old Arbat street. Instead, his elegantly attired mother, Klara,
appears. Fifty minutes later she announces the interview's end, and
Kasparov rushes off to another meeting to plan a soft revolution
against his nemesis, Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin.
Five years ago, Russia ignored Kasparov's warnings against Putin's
creeping authoritarianism: The sparsely attended rallies his group
organized were brutally broken up by police. In 2008 he and other
reformers founded Solidarity, an umbrella group of liberal opposition
movements. Kasparov pressed on, attacking the regime on his blog and
website as well as on radio.
Then came Putin's September announcement that he would run for
president in March to retake the office he held from 2000 to 2008.
Middle-class Russians suddenly woke up. Mass protests rocked Moscow a
week after the Dec. 4 parliamentary elections, which were tainted by
widespread allegations of fraud.
On Dec. 24, Kasparov addressed a rally in the capital that drew tens
of thousands onto the streets for the second time in a few weeks.
`Less than a month ago there was a different country,' he says. `The
next three months could contribute to more dramatic changes.'
Although the opposition to Putin, a loose coalition ranging from
nationalists to Solidarity's liberals, has no real leader, Kasparov is
the only one in the movement who commands global recognition. He is
also part of a key triumvirate organizing the protests.
Solidarity insists that the government dissolve Parliament now and
delay the Mar. 4 presidential vote to hold new elections under more
democratic rules. Putin has tried to appease the protesters while
rejecting their key demand of annulling the results of the December
parliamentary vote, which handed a wafer-thin majority to the ruling
party. Outgoing President Dmitry A. Medvedev is enacting laws to
ensure greater competition in national elections scheduled for 2016
and 2018. Putin's ex-Finance Minister, Alexei Kudrin, has held out the
possibility of new parliamentary polls in 18 months or two years.
`Obviously, they will be working on different countermoves,' says
Kasparov, who became the youngest world chess champion at age 22 and
was a top player for 18 years. `We have a lot of ingredients for
change, but we also have a very powerful system that wants anything
but change.' Like other activists, Kasparov has spent time in jail. He
employs a bodyguard who controls access to his mother's place, while
his wife and 5-year-old daughter live in New York.
The risk now for Putin is that the authorities will resort to fraud to
ensure him a convincing first-round victory. If that happens, more
protests likely will erupt, weakening him. Alexei Navalny, 35, a
blogger who targets corruption at state companies and was jailed
briefly last month, is already calling for a million people to rally
across the country in February. Navalny, an ally of Solidarity but not
a member, makes no secret of his presidential ambitions. He `is smart,
intelligent, well-educated, and a person who is liked by a lot of
Russians,' says Kasparov.
If Putin is concerned about the opposition's show of strength, he
isn't showing it, says Sergei Markov, a former lawmaker in the prime
minister's United Russia Party who is an adviser to the Kremlin.
`Putin has a very tough stance, he's very sure of himself, and he's
sure of the support of the majority of the population,' says Markov.
Putin's press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, says the Prime Minister is
convinced he will win outright, which requires more than 50 percent
support. `Any campaign which doesn't have as its aim victory on the
first round is a bad campaign,' he says.