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Mosnews.com
www.MosNews.com
September 14, 2004
Chess Player Kasparov Calls Putin ’Exemplary Stalinist’

Former chess world champion, chairman of the liberal organization Committee 2008: Free Choice, Garry Kasparov, called Russian president []Vladimir Putin an “exemplary Stalinist”.

“He speaks the old Soviet language in virtually all areas. He presses the freedom of press, hinders free commerce, he has knocked Russia off its democratic path,” Kasparov said speaking in Hamburg on Monday, at the Baltic Development Forum. His statement was published by the News.Ru web agency.

The chess player added that modern Russia is too tied with its Soviet past. He expressed regret that Russia had not admitted the guilt of its Soviet predecessors. “There is no place in the Russian press for the Committee 2008 and for a real opposition,” Kasparov said.

“But there is a place for nationalists and Stalinists who grieve over that ’great country’. They negate basic democratic values. They say it was better under Stalin because at that time, at least, everyone was afraid of us! These conversations on the ’return to the bygone fame’ become more and more frequent. Nazi propaganda is forbidden in Germany, but not in Russia,” the opposition committee chairman said.

Kasparov also criticized Putin’s latest proposals on changes in the political system. “Now, when we need more democracy, Putin takes steps to destroy it,” he said.

Putin proposed on Monday to cancel the election of governors by popular vote, and to introduce a fully proportional system of elections to the lower house of the parliament, the State Duma.

The chess player also criticized European leaders for having relations with the current Russian authorities. He accused German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French president Jacques Chirac of “double standards”.

“Five years of complaisance towards Putin’s government led to an almost full loss of democratic freedoms in Russia,” the agency quoted Kasparov as saying. “Western leaders who still hope that relations with Putin will lead to reforms similar to chess players who wish to attack only the enemy’s king. One must learn to play against pawns, play on all sides of the chessboard. If you are able to convince the opponent’s pawns and pieces to join you, the enemy’s king will not succeed in standing alone for a long time.”