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Garry Kasparov Profile picture
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14 Oct, 4 tweets, 1 min read
A conceptual problem with the West's dealings with Putin for 20 years now is they assume there's ideology and strategy, when it's boring-but-effective money and chaos and corruption.
US media and pundits had a similar problem with Trump. Demagoguery doesn't have to be sophisticated or novel to work. If you control enough of the environment, you can win, or at least inflict huge damage.
Control can come from a populist's appeal on mass and social media or from a dictator's riot police. It can be billions flowing into Western institutions to weaken and corrupt them. It's not complicated. It's propaganda. It's mafia.
It's physics, too. Maintaining order takes energy to do work. Causing chaos—collapse of structure, exhaustion, entropy—takes much less. Putin wants chaos because it weakens the institutions that could limit and hold him accountable.

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More from @Kasparov63

Garry Kasparov Profile picture
11 Oct
Honoring great deeds and risk-takers who defy conventional wisdom can inspire others to follow in their footsteps, be it into uncharted waters or outer space, and we sorely need such daring today. My op-ed on why I celebrate Columbus Day: wsj.com/articles/colum…
"This caricature of Columbus as little more than a rapacious villain is as simplistic and wrongheaded as the version of him as a savior-hero who proved the world was round." History is not a zero-sum game.
"We must teach the good and the bad of our leaders, our founders, our heroes and saints. Otherwise, myths take hold too easily, such as the Confederate “Lost Cause,” left to fester like an open wound."
Read 4 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
21 Sep
As the UN General Assembly begins, read @EnesKanter and me in the @NYDailyNews on how it has become a platform for dictators, unfit to be hosted and funded by the United States. nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-ope…
"Lacking any legitimacy from fair elections at home, dictators are always eager to appear on international stages and summits, especially in the U.S."
Authoritarian regimes are aggressively infiltrating international institutions, from Russia's abuse of Interpol–whose Congress is being hosted by Erdogan's Turkey this year–to China's deadly manipulation of the World Health Organization.
Read 4 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
2 Sep
Calling people "alarmist" is usually just a way of trying to discredit them, demonstrated by the fact that it goes on even after they've been proven correct.
When they cannot answer your arguments or refute the facts, they attack your tone and tactics. But that's not what they really want. They want you to stop, to shut up, to be ignored.
If you weren't right, they wouldn't care. When I joined others in Russia in 2005 to warn that Putin was creating a dictatorship, I was called hysterical, alarmist, etc. Instead of stopping as it all came true, the attacks continued.
Read 6 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
1 Sep
Pres. Biden's speech about leaving Afghanistan and nation-building was at least consistent until he said "human rights will be the center of our foreign policy." How, when the bad guys use force and don't care about your diplomacy?
Non-military action is vital to promote human rights, and can be very effective. Economic tools and cultural norms are essential. But when the enemies of the free world realize you've taken force off the table, you have 15 years of democracy in retreat.
When Assad's regime was crumbling, Putin sent fighter jets to support him. Obama sent John Kerry. Ukraine, Venezuela, Hong Kong, Belarus, Afghanistan—they use force when they know the free world will not even agree on sanctions.
Read 10 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
8 Aug
A tragedy and a shame. Many will be slaughtered and millions will be cast back into the Taliban dark ages. And it shows America is a untrustworthy ally, in contrast with dictators like Putin who show loyalty to their vile peers and allies. npr.org/2021/08/08/102…
I supported Biden over Trump without reservations in 2020. He had the chance to set America back on the path of standing for good, for the values of its founding. Instead, he is charting a course for the most defeatist and defeated US foreign policy in memory.
We saw in Obama the failure of trying to be friends with everyone. We saw in Trump a transactional, valueless president who used foreign policy for personal gain. If America is to mean anything more than cliches about freedom, it must show it in its actions.
Read 4 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
21 Jul
Germany & US collude with Putin to undermine Ukrainian, EU, and global security for a pipeline & cash. Steinmeier, Merkel & Maas, who said appeasing Putin would be "good for Russian civil society" before Navalny was nearly murdered and jailed. dw.com/en/just-in-us-…
Whenever Putin attacks, I'm asked "what do we do?" You act before there's an attack. Establish deterrence, create leverage against things Putin cares about. You can't reinforce him with deals and then act surprised when he attacks again.
Putin needs foreign conflict and chaos to stay in power in Russia. He can't stop. He also needs lucrative deals with the West to solidify his standing as guarantor of his oligarchs' fortunes & families abroad. Deals like Nord Stream 2.
Read 4 tweets

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