Russia threatens former chess champion Garry Kasparov with criminal charges
Putin critic, who has been living in exile since 2013, may be charged under Russia’s ‘foreign agent’ law, punishable by prison
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who fled Russia a decade ago for fear of persecution, may face a criminal case in Moscow for violating the Kremlin’s “foreign agent” law, state media reported on Sunday.
Russian law enforcement officials, the TASS news agency reported, said there is “every reason” to charge Kasparov, without providing further details. The democracy activist, a fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, could face up to two years in prison or a fine if a case is initiated, the unnamed officials said.
Kasparov’s media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In April, RadioFreeEurope reported in English based on reports in Russian media that a court in Russia’s Komi region had issued an arrest warrant for Kasparov on terrorism charges, a month after adding the former chess grandmaster to its list of terrorists and extremists.
“I am a terrorist in Russia; I have graduated from ‘foreign agent’ to ‘extremist,’ and now I am a ‘terrorist,” he confirmed in an interview with The Jerusalem Post published Sunday. “Many of my colleagues are [also called] ‘terrorists.'”
In that interview, Kasparov suggested that Hamas’s October 7 attack, which triggered the ongoing war between Israel and the terror group, was “conveniently timed by Putin to divert attention from the war in Ukraine.”
Russia added Kasparov to its list of individuals acting as foreign agents, which includes dozens of critics of Vladimir Putin, soon after the Russian president launched his full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022.
According to the law, a foreign agent is a person who receives support from foreign states or is under foreign influence and is engaged in political activities in Russia.
The foreign agent law, broadly condemned by the European Union and Washington, requires anyone identified as having foreign support or influence to register with the justice ministry and declare themselves foreign agents.
Kasparov, who founded the US-based Renew Democracy Initiative in 2017, also chairs the Human Rights Foundation, both of which make support for Ukraine a priority.
The chess grandmaster has been a prominent critic of Russian authorities since 2005, when he retired from competition, even seeking the country’s presidency in 2008. In 2013, Kasparov left the country for fear of persecution, and has maintained his activism since.
In recent months, he has criticized the Biden administration for its restrictions on military aid to Ukraine, writing in the Kyiv post last August that “Biden’s team has repeatedly failed to live up to its rhetoric on Ukraine,” accusing the administration of having “developed cold feet” in the conflict.
“My fear is that the Biden administration dreams of negotiating immoral ‘land for peace’ deals with war criminal Putin instead of giving Ukraine all the weapons it needs to win the war quickly and save lives,” Kasparov wrote at the time.
