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Garry Kasparov Profile picture
@Kasparov63
Feb 20, 2022 • 9 tweets • 3 min read • Read on X
After warning so many White House admins blundering with Putin, I don't care if they listen to me as long as they are listening to reason. If you make the same mistake twice you are either a fool or it's not a mistake at all, it's collusion & corruption.
I blasted W Bush for treating Putin like an ally after 9/11, but they were both new on the job in a crisis. By 2008, Putin wasn't a mystery, but Obama gifted him the Reset. Trump was Putin's fan and beneficiary. Biden talked tough, but is repeating the reactive pattern.
As I just said on CNN, I *hear* Scholz, Macron and Biden talking, but I don't see anything new. Putin was "a pariah" in 2008 when he invaded Georgia, invaded Ukraine & shot down MH-17 in 2014, etc. And? He hosted the World Cup in 2018 and Nord Stream 2 went ahead. Pariah? Image
I'm not in the mood to be charitable when thousands more innocent people may about to be murdered by a man I was told repeatedly I was overreacting to call a dictator and threat.
Once again, dictators don't ask why, they only ask why not. If you don't act to stop them, they assume you are fine with what they are doing, but must say that you aren't for show. It's up to the leaders of the free world to prove Putin wrong. I'm not sure he is.
Just one example of the thinking that got us here, the dismissive tone of a so-called Russia expert in a review of my 2015 book Winter Is Coming. He had already invaded Ukraine & annexed Crimea, but I was overreacting! washingtonpost.com/opinions/chess…
Many lives are at stake, but so is the global order based on the rule of law. Putin's invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea shook its foundation. Now he wants to shatter it. If the free world is worth defending, it must be defended now. video.snapstream.net/Play/79yBSXy8o… Image
Words matter. It's a Putin crisis, not a Ukraine crisis. There are no separatists; they are Russian occupation forces. There is no Russian president; there is a dictator with nukes who wants the world to dance to his tune. Words matter, but they have never stopped a dictator.
For predicting Putin's moves, just see what he sees. He looks around and doesn't see forces coming to defend Ukraine. He hears leaders of mighty nations only talking instead of acting to stop him. He sees promises, not action, and he knows promises are made to be broken.

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More from @Kasparov63

Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Sep 23
Providing a platform for authoritarian regimes to have equal status with democratic nations has turned the UN into a cesspool. It was designed to freeze the Cold War between nuclear superpowers, and it mostly worked. The model became obsolete & toxic when the Cold War ended.
It may not be worth the effort of disintegrating the UN, as corrupt and worthless as it is becoming. But there must at least be an alternative organization where dictatorships aren't running human rights committees & authoritarian regimes can't gang up to condemn democracies.
There may be a place for an organization where every nation & regime is treated equally, but such an institution can never be a force for good. Dictatorships are illegitimate by definition. Platforming & empowering them increases all forms of human suffering.
Read 5 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Sep 12
I treasure my own Chess Olympiad memories & would love to just enjoy this Olympiad in Budapest. But politics and the value of human life come first. The Russian Federation is banned, as from most international events, due to Russia's genocidal war in Ukraine. It must be upheld.
As I know from long experience in the USSR and Russia, there is no "just chess," or "just sports" when it comes to propaganda. It means allowing Russia to promote its image on the global stage while murdering Ukrainians in an unprovoked war of conquest.
I was proud to play under the new Russian flag, and I was perhaps the first to insist that I did not represent the Soviet Union. My mother even made me a flag from ribbons for the 1990 world championship. But now that flag represents tyranny & murder. nytimes.com/1990/10/01/wor…
Read 5 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Sep 11
I can’t vote in the US but I am honored to live here and have always admired it. I don’t much care for Harris or many of her policy positions. But even more after seeing Trump tonight, I look forward to vehemently disagreeing with her for four years as US president.
Trump is unfit and always has been. He proved it in office and is only worse now. I’m pretty conservative, but he’s not. He’s the clearer and greater threat to America and American values than the progressive mush that Harris has in her baggage.
As for "Comrade Kamala," allow me a Lloyd Benson moment. MAGA, I know Communism. I grew up under Communism and fought against it and despise it in all its vile, soul-crushing forms. And MAGA, Kamala Harris is no Communist.
Read 7 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Aug 29
Emphasizing that part of this WH fallacy is the idea there is a "Russia" at all on a strategic decision-making level. It’s a one-man dictatorship. There are no core interests except for Putin's. Only when he sees leaving Ukraine as better for his survival than war will he stop.
You cannot negotiate out of a crisis with someone whose survival depends on the crisis continuing. Either Russia destroys Ukraine with massive material and strategic gains, with NATO next, or continuing becomes a threat to Putin’s grip on power so he declares victory & leaves.
This piecemeal support from the West drags it out. Putin is happy to continue the war at this level and escalate opportunistically. He couldn’t care less about Russian lives or the Russian economy or anything else "Russia". Only the threat of an undeniable defeat will stop him.
Read 5 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Aug 28
Ukraine is again proving they know how to fight a dictatorship—with surprise & aggression that creates doubt and fear in the dictator. Meanwhile, its allies continue the failed model of appeasement and diplomacy, which only emboldens the dictator. Read:
Novelty & attack are key. They force decisions all the way up to the dictator & paralyze the power vertical. In a dictatorship, everyone from conscript to general is terrified of making a decision. If it’s business as usual, the behemoth can function. Anything novel is crippling.
Decisions going to Putin is slow & produces cautious reactions. Dictators are fearful; it’s how they survive. Loss of control means death, so they only act aggressively when they are sure of a positive result. They can be wrong, of course, with disaster. So deterrence is vital.
Read 4 tweets
Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Aug 12
Putin has been looting Russia for over 20 years; this is just doing it on a more personal level.
Societal apathy and corruption are useful for sustaining a dictatorship. Civil society is erased and the people collectively have no power, no stake, no interests beyond survival. But that lack of resistance applies to everything, including foreign invasion.
Ukrainians would be justified in seeking out every form of revenge on Russian soil after what Russia has done to them for 10 years. Torture, rape, murder of friends and family, entire cities destroyed. But their entire value system is different. Democratic, Western.
Read 6 tweets

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