Former chess champion Garry Kasparov is no longer just a “foreign agent” for Moscow.
The list of people declared “terrorists and extremists” has now been placed, according to a notice from the Russian financial intelligence service consulted on Wednesday by AFP, almost three weeks after the death of Russian opponent Alexeï Navalny in a penal colony in the Arctic.
Born in 1963 in Soviet Azerbaijan, Garry Kasparov was one of the greatest chess players in history before becoming a fierce opponent of Vladimir Putin.
In 2013, fearing legal action, he left Russia.
He now lives in New York where he founded Renew Democracy Initiative, a transpartisan association that defends democratic values around the world, and remains a determined opponent of the Russian “dictator”.
He continues to denounce Russian power and its military campaign in Ukraine.
Also read: Garry Kasparov: “We must accept that we want Russia to be defeated”
On Tuesday, he applauded Emmanuel Macron's intervention in Prague on the social network X, while saying that “talking is not enough”.
“Well done, but actions not words please!”
I made this comparison in 2015, of a Europe divided for two generations and abandoning half of it to communist darkness.
Today, the eastern half is showing the same cowardice in the face of Russian aggression.
Never again,” he wrote.
Bravo, but actions not words please!
I made this comparison in 2015, of Europe divided for two generations and abandoning half of it to Communist darkness.
Now that Eastern half is watching the same cowardice in the face of Russian aggression.
Never again.
https://t.co/96Nz8xkGrU
— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) March 5, 2024
Garry Kasparov is famous for his long duel in the 1980s with another Soviet chess legend, Anatoly Karpov, who later supported Vladimir Putin and became a deputy in the Russian president's party.
In Asnières (Hauts-de-Seine), the Anatoli-Karpov mall, located in the new Seine Ouest district, was renamed for this reason.