“Unlike Hitler, Putin has his finger on the red button”
Stop Putin? “If we knew who could do that, that person would already be dead because Putin would have eliminated the threat,” says Kasparov
Source: dpa / Lino Mirgeler
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has been one of Vladimir Putin’s harshest critics for years. He sees in him the greatest threat to humanity. Russia has long been like a mafia state. However, the regime could collapse overnight due to three factors.
Dhe former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “It is tragic for my country. Thousands of young Russians are dying for this mad dictator. Many of them were born under Putin and die under Putin,” said the 58-year-old in an interview with the “FAZ”.
He hopes “that this war will lead to the collapse of his regime”. It is the first time since the end of the Cold War that almost the whole world has come together. In my wildest dreams I would not have expected such solidarity within four or five days.”
Kasparov, world chess champion from 1985 to 2000, has been a critic of Putin for years. In his book Why We Must Stop Putin, he predicted in 2015 that Putin would attack Ukraine again. At the time, he called for Ukraine to be supplied with weapons and to end its dependence on Russian gas and oil. Nobody wanted to believe him, Kasparov reported: “When asked if I really thought Putin was more dangerous than Isis, I said: The terrorist organization comes and goes, Putin is a constant existential threat. I was looked at as if I were an idiot.”
“Will there be a palace coup against Putin?”
The question of who can stop Putin in Russia, on the other hand, is not easy to answer. “If we knew who could do that, that person would already be dead because Putin would have eliminated the threat,” Kasparov said. He is constantly asked what needs to happen to dethrone Putin. “Do millions of demonstrators have to stand in Red Square? Will there be a palace coup? Will the oligarchs intervene? It’s all together. When dictatorships end, you can never predict who will make the last move,” said Kasparov, speaking of a “loss of control” by the Russian president.
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“After 22 years with such power and no one to criticize you, it’s hard to stay sane. He sees everything from his bubble,” Kasparov said. “We know he trusts very few and doesn’t go on the internet. How is someone like that supposed to remain realistic?” There is something wrong with Putin, “that he can end life on this planet. One man’s dictatorship in Russia is by far the greatest existential threat to humanity.” In contrast to Hitler and dictators of the past, the 69-year-old Putin has “his finger on the red button”.
In his view, three factors must be met for a dictatorship like Putin’s to collapse. The first would be “a military defeat. That can happen if Ukraine resists long enough. The second factor is economic and financial collapse, and that’s just a matter of weeks. The third factor is isolation. This is very important psychologically. If all three components are met, the regime can collapse overnight because people will take to the streets and the oligarchs will throw Putin out.”
Modern Russia cannot be compared with the fanaticism under Stalin or in Hitler’s Germany, where people were willing to die for their beloved leader. Putin’s regime is all about money, it’s more like a mafia state. As long as the boss hands out money and protection, people will stand behind him. As soon as no more money flows, the loyalty is gone immediately”.
Kasparov considers the fact that Putin invested tens of billions in sports such as the Winter Olympics in Sochi or the 2018 World Cup, and also sent tens of millions to the World Chess Federation, to be a perfidious plan by Putin. With these huge sums of money, he is not concerned with sport, “it is always all about Putin. It is part of his network just like Chelsea or Schalke 04 or various charity events. How he built soft power through all of this will likely go down in history as the most sophisticated operation to undermine the free world. Putin has not shied away from spending billions on it, and chess is a small part of this huge campaign. The surprising thing is that within a week there’s nothing left of it.”
Long fight against the despot: Kasparov in April 2007 at a demonstration against the Putin regime in Moscow
Quelle: Getty Images
Kasparov chairs the Human Rights Forum and the Renew Democracy Initiative. He lives with his family in New York. He has not set foot in Russia since 2013 and did not meet his mother until her death in 2020. “My mother always hoped that this regime would end up in the dustbin of history and that I could return to Moscow,” said Kasparov, “when the time comes, the first thing I will do is visit her grave.”
Port city of Cherson taken – Violent explosions in Kyiv
Several heavy explosions occurred in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv during the night. Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials report the capture of the port city of Cherson, which has been contested for days.
Source: WELT/ Christoph Hipp
