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Garry Kasparov Profile picture
Garry Kasparov
@Kasparov63
Founder of @Renew_Democracy. Co-founder @WLCongress. Activist, speaker, 13th World Chess Champion. Autocracy in America podcast: https://t.co/xemlxTR3IN
312 subscribers
Jan 24 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Yes, as I wrote in my "Putinization of America" articles in the Atlantic. ICE is Trump's Rosgvardia, given impunity (or "total immunity" in Vance's words) for loyalty to Trump personally. Encouraged to violate the law, then told they'll be punished only if MAGA loses power, etc. "This is why the resistance must center the principles at stake. Does America have rule of law or not? The first line in defense of an incipient police state is: “You don’t have anything to fear if you’ve done nothing wrong.” This fallacy is soon replaced by: “It could happen to anybody,” as the regime sees the value of using arbitrary persecution to spread fear. Again, fear is the autocrat’s goal, as is simply doing many things every day. Even if you don’t like him or his policies, the longer he is there, doing things, the more the autocrat starts to feel inevitable, like the sun rising each morning.

In politics, as in physics, force is mass times acceleration. The administration is mounting a barrage of attacks, with great urgency, to break through the resistance of American legal structures, sometimes by using legal and relatively popular policies (deporting convicted criminals, for example) as cover for likely illegal and relatively unpopular policies (deporting immigrants without due process). The fabricated urgency is a tell: No war, no terrible crisis, compels the president to violate the Constitution. But the administration is breaking down norms and setting precedents faster than judges can stop it. Of course, ignoring judges is also part of the plan."

theatlantic.com/international/…
Jan 24 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Trying to predict the outrages of autocrats is hopeless because their superpower is to generate constant shocks to dominate the environment. But what’s happening in Minnesota is method, not madness. Trump wants violence, to radicalize & divide, to create pretext for crackdowns. First, to claim only he can solve the crisis (that he is creating), a typical formula. Chaos & violence push people toward a "law and order" strongman. Also, as the midterms approach, the grounds must be prepared for interfering with the democratic process for "security" reasons.
Jan 15 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
When you think of despots and media, it's often of Big Brother on every screen or Pravda publishing the party line. That may be how it ends, but that's not how it starts. Chilling effects, appeasement, producers and publishers toeing the line unquestioningly. My latest: It's natural to question the source when something is published by an outlet known to be in the tank, or in the pocket, of a partisan owner. But when a previously respected outlet like CBS suddenly starts acting like a White House press shop, few are prepared.
Jan 3 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Maduro is a dictator who stayed in power by force after losing an election. No one who believes in democracy should mourn his fall. Trump's pretexts and potential geopolitical deals especially w Russia deserve scrutiny, but the Venezuelan people deserve a chance at freedom. As with everything Trump does, his motivations will be about personal power and enrichment. This does not contradict that Maduro was an illegitimate thug allied with others like him. However his removal was arranged (deal?) it shakes the global forces of dictatorship.
Jan 2 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
🎯 Mamdani's "warmth of collectivism" line, naive or ominous or both, is becoming a teachable moment. It would be nice if people would learn about the bitter realities of socialism this way instead of the hard way of living through it. As I explained back when it was Bernie Sanders saying similar things & was defended in similar ways, it's not a matter of rhetoric or intentions. Obv they aren't Mao, it's not the USSR, etc. It's what people in power with a collectivist mindset do when things don't go well.
Dec 17, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Putin has made this clear dozens of times. He wants Ukraine and cannot afford to stop war. Now the usual cycle of Trump officials and Putin‘s European sycophants downplaying or simply ignoring it and saying Russia wants peace in order to delay European action. Trump has made his alliance clear. He wants Russian money and a peace prize and believes Putin can get both for him. And that Zelensky and Ukraine refusing to surrender to occupation, murder, kidnapping, torture, and national destruction are roadblocks in his way.
Nov 26, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
All true, but focusing on Witkoff misses the big picture in these so-called peace plan revelations. It’s what many of us have said since January: The Trump family & team are allied with Russia against Ukraine and Europe for profit, and there are no US national interests involved. Where the plan came from, Russia, is irrelevant to them if it helped them get what they want from Russia. Witkoff is loyal—but to the goal of unlocking Russian business and billions for Trump and cronies. Ukraine is an annoyance, blocking this plan by refusing to surrender.
Nov 21, 2025 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
To paraphrase a great Ukrainian patriot, "Russian peace plan, go f*** yourself!" Do not fall for the desired Kremlin/Trump narrative of Ukraine "rejecting peace". The plan was a surrender document that would have crippled Ukrainian sovereignty, which is what they’ve given so much blood to defend since the Maidan Revolution exactly 12 years ago today.
Nov 17, 2025 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
I just met a remarkable man whose caring and courage have produced a must-see film, "Mr Nobody Against Putin". Pavel "Pasha" Talankin documented two years of everyday life in the small town of Karabash, where he worked at a school. Plain, horrific reality of Putin's Russia. Image Even for me and my wife, no strangers to the depravations of the USSR and Putin's dictatorship, what Russia has now become down to the brainwashing of children was shocking to see. A history teacher idolizing Beria & Abakumov as former students return from Ukraine in body bags.
Nov 2, 2025 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
No personal experience. As with Trump's authoritarianism, and the antisemitism rising on left and right, Marxism and its stalking horse democratic socialism spreads easily among those too young and/or ignorant of their history. The moral clarity of the Cold War is long gone. The Soviet Union was evil. We knew it and Americans knew it. Engagement has blurred the lines with profitable moral relativism. We get our iPhones from a Communist dictatorship using slave labor and call it progress. Our energy purchases fund feudal monarchies and Russian wars.
Nov 2, 2025 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Like any successful mafia boss, Putin's axis of dictatorship is based on loyalty and the use of force. Free world powers sit complacently atop their towers of weapons and wealth, sending concerns and press releases. Russia, Iran, Cuba et al send troops, missiles, and jets. Of course, that loyalty can come to an abrupt end at any moment, as happened to Assad in Syria a year ago. No honor among terrorists and thugs. Ukraine's valiant resistance has weakened Russia's ability to support its allies and proxies.
Oct 8, 2025 • 5 tweets • 1 min read
No one could watch Bondi‘s performance, and that’s what it was, of stonewalling and trolling and think that she’s part of an administration that believes they will ever leave power or be held accountable. This isn’t the typical lack of foresight of having procedural changes come back to bite you. This is a group so invested in shattering the institutions of American governance and in personal enrichment that there can be no way back.
Oct 5, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Yes. As I wrote in February, everything is an emergency. And if there isn't one yet, it will be created asap. In our marches in Russia, we were adamant to avoid any sign of violence. Not one broken window, because we knew it’s what the regime wanted. They lined the streets with riot police, outnumbering us 10 to 1. But in the end, it didn’t matter. They simply criminalized all protest.
Sep 28, 2025 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
When we warned of Putin's rising dictatorship in the 2000s, we were dismissed as fearmongers, even hysterics, in the West. Now a similar process is underway in the US, with Trump following the Putin playbook. My latest in The Atlantic on fighting Putinization: 👇 Image Talking about 2028 is dangerously naive; the danger is now. Trump is directing the military and justice department to go to "war" on US cities and his enemies, from TV hosts to former FBI directors. Keeping the 2026 midterms fair may be the last stand. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
Aug 30, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
What a joke. Trump has no plan for ending the war because his only idea is to give Putin everything he asks, which wouldn’t end the war at all. Europe and Ukraine know this. More importantly, Putin knows this and sees no reason to stop the killing he started. Putin started the war in 2014, expanded it in 2022, and Russia has intensified attacks on Ukrainian civilians every day of Trump's time in office. The motives Putin had to try to destroy Ukraine are still there while no new reasons for him to stop have been created. Simple.
Aug 14, 2025 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
I'm afraid you're too good for the brave new Putinized world of Trump, Mike! This is a business meeting, no foreign policy expertise required. Witkoff & Bessent, Russian finance guys, that's where the action is. Putin may toss in some Ukraine for show, at best. Everything Trump does is about Trump. Not Ukraine, not America. This hasty and otherwise pointless and destructive meeting is no exception. It's for the Dear Leader's monetization and glorification. Rubio had to be there for token camouflage only.
Aug 14, 2025 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Totally misunderstanding Witkoff's mission and Trump's entire agenda. Witkoff's only job is to make the most profitable deal for his boss, and he's competent at that. The media is so used to standard narratives of national interests that they force everything into that framework even when it doesn't fit. Dictators like Putin and would-be autocrats like Trump don't care about "Russia" or "America", only their personal power, wealth, and image.
Aug 10, 2025 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Nothing is honorable about rewarding the aggressor & condemning the victim to occupation, torture, and death. And Ukraine doesn’t have to forcibly expel every Russian soldier from its land when hitting Russian targets + allies destroying the RU economy will force them to leave. "Ukraine can’t win" has been the mantra of Kremlin propagandists for years now. As if Ukrainians needed to march on Moscow, or send out meat waves of infantry like Russia does. Ukraine *can* win, by making continuing the war more dangerous for Putin’s grasp on power than leaving.
Aug 7, 2025 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
The Russian economy is collapsing, Ukrainian strikes are crippling RU energy & will only expand, and all Putin has left is terror attacks on civilians. What to do? Call Trump to the rescue! Get sanctions lifted, stop UKR strikes, marginalize Europe, kill more innocents. 1/7 If Senator Graham has any decency left he will hide in a dark corner and never speak again. Rubio is a Catholic who believes in Heaven and Hell, no? The only question left is the price. How much is Putin paying for the US to betray its allies, values, and its own security? 2/7
Aug 1, 2025 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
For over a century, US power, including hard power, was a force for good in the world. Yes, I said it. My latest Autocracy In America guest @AmbJohnBolton also says it, with plenty to back it up. From Iran to Russia to Hamas, what Trump's isolationism gets wrong. Link 👇 Image Listen or read my latest podcast episode of Autocracy In America with Ambassador John Bolton, who still believes America can, and should, be a force for democracy in the world. theatlantic.com/podcasts/archi…
Jul 28, 2025 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
Some good material as usual, but do not give so much credit to the Western leaders Putin evaluated correctly. They were ready to concede Ukraine. Putin's big mistake of underestimating Ukraine and Ukrainians is one Biden and others made as well, and it all comes back to that. Also, Putin is a KGB man, not a military leader, and his war on the free world started long before 2014, in 2005. His methods changed as his sense of impunity grew in the face of Western weakness. He was building political & economic leverage before using force.