Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Mar 3, 2022 13 tweets 3 min read Read on X
We are witnessing, literally watching live, Putin commit genocide on an industrial scale in Ukraine while the most powerful military alliance in history stands aside. It's impossible not to be emotional, but let us also be rational and focus our rage on the facts. 1/13
Putin once again told Macron to go to hell, no surprise. NATO/EU has already told Putin they won't touch his forces, so why should he listen? Russia is lifting target limitations and the death toll is rising every hour and lack of water & electricity is critical. 2/13
No treaty forbids NATO nations from fighting to defend in Ukraine. It's a choice based on the risk of Putin going nuclear, many say. That arming Ukrainians is an acceptable risk of WWIII & the citizenship of the pilot or soldier changes Putin's nuclear calculus, or NATO's. 3/13
If they care so much about the fine print and think Putin does too, ask Zelensky to issue Ukrainian passports to any volunteer to fly in combat. Sell jets to Ukraine for €1 each and paint UKR flags on them. Do you think Putin will care? Is it worth the lives lost? 4/13
This is already World War III. Putin started it long ago & Ukraine is only the current front. He will escalate anyway, and it's even more likely if he succeeds in destroying Ukraine because you have again convinced him you won't stop him even though you could. 5/13
Biden & others insist NATO would retaliate should Putin attack Baltic members. Watching Ukraine, I am not sure of that at all, and Putin won't be either. If the calculation is about nuclear risk, it's no different over Estonia than Ukraine. Don't say "Putin would never". 6/13
If this sounds familiar, it's the same argument from 2014, when Putin invaded E Ukraine and annexed Crimea. It was too risky to stop him, I was told, as I pleaded for intervention and warned he would never stop there. Here we are, with bombs raining down. 7/13
Risk and costs are higher now because the "reasonable" people in the West always choose lower risk today to guarantee higher risk tomorrow. Clearing the UKR skies after a warning period is risky. Letting Putin destroy Ukraine is riskier, & a human and moral disaster. 8/13
There is no waiting this out. This isn't chess; there's no draw, no stalemate. Either Putin destroys Ukraine and eventually hits NATO with an even greater catastrophe, or Putin falls in Russia. He cannot be stopped with weakness. 9/13
The corridors to get weapons, food, and medicine in and refugees out are narrowing and can be closed. Putin can bomb the trains, close the borders with NATO nations. The odds of Russian forces hitting a NATO asset are increasing, and then what? Still watching? 10/13
If your answer is no, that if a wing of a RU jet crosses Polish airspace, of course NATO will engage immediately, ask why thousands of Ukrainians civilians dying first matters less than a treaty, and what that says to Putin. That you're honorable, or a fool? We know. 11/13
As I said in 2014 and a fateful week ago, the price of stopping a dictator always goes up. What would have been enough to stop Putin 8 years or 6 months or 2 weeks ago is not enough today, and the price will rise again tomorrow. Fight. Find a way. 12/13
Putin vows to exterminate Ukrainians while we watch. Ukraine did nothing wrong but try to join the democratic world that is now witnessing crimes against humanity in real time. Not unable. Unwilling. #CloseTheSky 13/13

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More from @Kasparov63

Apr 27
This is why Putin is so desperate to get Trump to push through a Ukrainian surrender deal that he can say makes him the big winner. Ukraine winning doesn't mean attacking Russia, only defending its territory. The US not helping Ukraine is bad, but just don't help Russia.
We said as much about the Russian democratic opposition to Putin nearly 20 years ago. Stopping him was a fight for Russians, but even if you weren't going to help us, stop helping him crush Russian civil society by pretending he wasn't a dictator. They did not stop.
Now, Trump wants to help Russia destroy Ukraine by lifting sanctions and rehabilitating Putin politically when he and the Russian economy are weak. Are the Republicans, and Americans generally, going to be complicit in this betrayal of a US ally and of US interests?
Read 5 tweets
Apr 24
Refusing to acknowledge the maximalist nature of demagogues and autocrats is why democracies are so bad at resisting them. Acting like MAGA is going to follow the rules of free and fair elections in 2028 (with or without Trump) is a fantasy. 2026 is already in grave danger.
As with most of Trump‘s projection—accusing his enemies of his own crimes, flaws, & failings—his beloved big lie about the 2020 election being stolen paves the way for his own abuses. "They did it to us first" resentment is one of the core principles of autocratic movements.
Americans cannot wait for 2028 because if they do, there won’t be nearly as much they can do by then and it will be far more difficult to do it. Same with thinking you can wait until the midterms. No. Resist 100% now, on everything, or the elections process will be subverted.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 23
Countries that recognize Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea: Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea. The US State Dept site (for now): "The US govt recognizes Crimea is part of Ukraine; it does not & will not recognize the purported annexation of Crimea." Image
Trump is so eager to please Putin that he votes with Russia in the UN to avoid even condemning Russia's war of aggression. Doing so in the name of peace is even more pathetic and revolting. Surrendering to a hostile invader only guarantees further aggression.
Why isn't every Republican being asked every day if they agree with Trump on aligning the United States with Russia against Ukraine, Europe, and the free world the US once led? This has nothing to do with "peace", only surrender and more war to come.
Read 4 tweets
Apr 14
Trump again rushes to humiliate his sycophants and defenders with a full-throated embrace of Russia, the day after it murdered 30 civilians in Sumy, Ukraine with ballistic missiles on Palm Sunday. Where are the condemnations and resignations of the GOP who spoke out yesterday?
Did Biden launch those missiles? Zelenskyy? Nor did either of them start this war, but you couldn’t tell that from Trump's insane ravings. No mention of Putin, of course, who launched this attack the day after Trump's envoy personally kissed his ass, just to show who’s in charge.
This is the only formula Trump has left to defend his embrace of Putin & Russia. As for his "it wouldn’t have happened on my watch", 1, the war WAS going on during his term and he did nothing. 2, as I explained again in the Atlantic, Putin expected Trump to help him as he is now: Image
Read 4 tweets
Apr 13
Sycophants and conspiracy loons praising the ass-kissing of a Russian mafia dictator by a US president and his envoy. This is Trump's America, and they want you to be as proud of it as they are. And on the day of Russia's bloodiest civilian attack of the year in Ukraine.
Much as Biden's "as long as it takes" was slippery rhetoric to avoid committing to Ukrainian victory, the Trump admin's "working for peace" is a merely a mask for collaborating with Russia to try to force Ukraine to surrender and be destroyed. Capitulation is not negotiation.
The US is siding with the Putin dictatorship, unable even to say Russia is the aggressor that started and that continues this war. That’s not being diplomatic, it’s being a liar and a collaborator with the Russian evil that slaughtered over 30 civilians today in Sumy.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 3
During Trump‘s first term, I pointed out that anyone skeptical of what propaganda could do in an authoritarian state like Russia only needed to look at how easily one cable channel and some talk radio hosts flipped the GOP into worshiping a reality show host and hating the FBI.
Surveys follow the Dear Leader's agenda with terrible predictability. Russians had balanced views of the United States & NATO and were positive on the European Union until it suited Putin to make enemies out of them one by one. Public opinion quickly followed the propaganda line.
27% of Republicans now call Canada unfriendly or enemy. Canada! It is a measure of propaganda power and cult loyalty tests. Do they believe it or just know that’s what they’re supposed to say now? Is there a difference in practice? Russia and China as friends coming up next…
Read 4 tweets

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