As of: March 7, 2024, 8:04 a.m
By: Stefan Schmid
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He achieved the highest honors in chess.
Garry Kasparov has now been placed on the Russian terrorist list.
An award for this one.
Moscow/New York – Putin opponents who appear in public don't have it easy in Russia.
It is not just since the Ukraine war that opposition members in Russia have been systematically persecuted and silenced.
The death of Alexei Navalny showed that Vladimir Putin does not shy away from well-known names.
But less well-known personalities are also taken into account.
Now it happened to chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who received a kind of “promotion”.
Garry Kasparov in a guest appearance during a blitz chess tournament in Lisbon in November 2021. © IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
Russia: Kasparov now officially classified as a “terrorist”.
Garry Kasparov began criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin as early as 2004.
Back during his first term in office.
Since then, a lot has been said and written about Kasparov in Russia and he also repeatedly used harsh words towards Putin.
In May 2022, two months after Russia's attack on Ukraine, he was classified as a “foreign agent” by the Russian judiciary.
Now came the “promotion” for Kasparov, who now lives in New York.
He was placed on the list of “terrorists and extremists” by the Russian financial regulator.
Probably also because of his activism, which Kasparov continues to pursue even in exile.
Over the years, the 60-year-old co-founded the “Renew Democracy Initiative” and the “World Liberty Congress”.
Kasparov and Navalny protested side by side in St. Petersburg in 2012 for fair elections.
© IMAGO / ITAR-TASS
Kasparov describes label of “terrorist” as “an honor”
Kasparov, who was awarded the “Media Freedom Prize” last year, is not very impressed on
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(formerly Twitter): “An honor that says more about Putin’s fascist regime than it does about me.” that “any opposition, any simple decency” would be portrayed as extremist.
Kasparov has a lot of experience in opposition work.
Between his retirement from chess in 2005 and his emigration in 2013, he ran for political office, organized protests and discussion groups - in 2012 he demonstrated alongside Alexei Navalny for fair elections.
After he was arrested and later released during the mass protests in support of Pussy Riot that same year, he left the country in 2013.
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