Russia included
Garry Kasparov
, the former world chess champion exiled in the United States, on its list of people declared
"terrorists and extremists"
, according to a note from the Russian financial surveillance service consulted this Wednesday by AFP.
The respective information appeared today on the website of Rosfinmonitoring, the Russian financial supervisor.
Kasparov, born in 1963 in Azerbaijan, then part of the Soviet Union, is a
staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin
, who will go to the presidential elections on March 15.
Garry Kasparov was one of the greatest chess players in history, before becoming a fierce opponent of Putin.
He was world champion between 1985 and 2000. In 2013, fearing prosecution, he left Russia and now lives in the United States, from where he continues to denounce the Russian government and its military campaign in Ukraine.
In 2022,
Kasparov was designated a "foreign agent
" in Russia, a label used against massive opponents, generally journalists and activists, who are subjected to tedious administrative procedures in Russia.
Two weeks ago, after learning of the death in prison of the Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny, Kasparov did not hesitate to accuse the Russian president of it.
"Putin is Navalny's murderer
," he wrote on his X account.
Last December, Russia declared Boris Akunin, one of the most widely read contemporary writers in Russia, a terrorist and extremist, highly critical of the war in Ukraine.
Most of
Russia's remaining prominent opponents are imprisoned.
Kasparov is famous for his long duel in the 1980s against another Soviet chess legend, Anatoly Karpov.
Karpov, on the other hand, was elected deputy for the party of the Russian president, whom he publicly supports.