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Russian Police Seize Kasparov

Posted by CmdrTaco on Sat Nov 24, 2007 09:41 AM
from the only-a-matter-of-time dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Russian police seized Garry Kasparov, the Russian chess champion, for staging a political rally against Vladimir Putin. IBM's Deep Blue computer was the first to beat a world champion when it defeated Kasparov, who is one of the strongest players in history." He's also been a giant critic of the Russian administration which is increasingly restricting free speech.

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  • obigatory joke (Score:5, Funny)

    by 2.7182 (819680) on Saturday November 24, @09:45AM (#21462341)
    Checkmate!
    Seriously, this sucks.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      In Soviet Russia, police seize Kasparov!

      what, what?
        • Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Funny)

          by Kiffer (206134) on Saturday November 24, @02:30PM (#21464529)

          I was gonna say
          In Soviet Russia, Kasparov seizes you!
          but that does not really apply.


          In Soviet Russia, Pawns seize Kasparov!

          sigh... I had to say it ...
          [ Parent ]
    • Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Funny)

      by sentientbeing (688713) on Saturday November 24, @10:01AM (#21462433)
      He's obviously just a pawn in all this.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SlashThat (859697) on Saturday November 24, @10:21AM (#21462551)
      Actually this might benefit Kasparov's cause. He's a respected person both in Russia and abroad, and a move like this could provoke a stronger protest against Putin. I trust Kasparov has calculated this 6 moves ahead :)
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:obligatory joke (Score:5, Insightful)

        by Aminion (896851) on Saturday November 24, @10:49AM (#21462749)
        I hope that you are right, but if the world hasn't been able to do anything about Russia's horrible crimes against the people of Chechnya, how big are the chances that Kasparov can make a difference? Also, don't forget that Putin's approval ratings are pretty high even if you disbelieve the official statistics from the Kremlin, i.e. the Russians themselves might not even care about this and that is what's really required here. You can't force changes like this from the outside (are you going to sanction Russia? Use military force? Hardly), it has to come from the people of Russia.
        [ Parent ]
      • Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Interesting)

        by shutdown -p now (807394) <int19h@gmail.com> on Saturday November 24, @01:13PM (#21463937)
        I can't say for the other countries, but here in Russia most people do not appreciate Kasparov as a politician. That might have something in common with Putin's high approval rating.
        [ Parent ]
                  • Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Interesting)

                    by einhverfr (238914) <ctravers@ieee.org> on Saturday November 24, @04:58PM (#21465549) Homepage Journal
                    I am not so sure about this. Kasparov's "fear-mongering" about the end of democracy in Russia seem more fact based than one might otherwise think.

                    Look, I am not saying that Russia doesn't have the right to choose a system which trades central control over infrastructure development and management of the country instead of one which safeguards individual liberty. This is a choice for Russians alone and I don't think we should interfere with that part itself. However, when Putin starts assassinating dissidents outside of Russia, then he crosses a line which makes him pretty clearly a problem everyone in the world has to face. We *should* have done this when Litvinenko was assassinated with polonium from a Russian nuclear reactor. Maybe this will help people start to realize the danger that Putin poses outside Russia.
                    [ Parent ]
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      Checkmate!


      If he can just hit that bulls-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards!

      Chris Mattern
    • The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:5, Informative)

      by reporter (666905) on Saturday November 24, @10:41AM (#21462689)
      Unfortunately for Gary Kasparov, the Kremlin plays brutal chess.

      According to a report [washingtonpost.com] recently issued by Reuters, the leading political candidate representing the liberal anti-Kremlin Yabloko party has been shot by an unknown assailant. The candidate is now in serious condition in a hospital. This attempted assassination caps a year-long effort, by the Kremlin, to rig the parliamentary election on December 2. Under orders from the Kremlin, banks have refused to accept donations from supporters for deposit in the accounts of opposition parties [iht.com]. Owners of assembly halls have canceled contracts allowing opposition politicians to stage rallies. The police have seized the newspapers of opposition parties in a draconian attempt to prevent them from spreading their message.

      In early November, the election-monitoring arm of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) declined to send election observers to Russia [timesonline.co.uk] to monitor the 2007 parliamentary election. This OSCE decision resulted from (1) the Kremlin's refusing to allow more than 70 OSCE observers to enter Russia and (2) the Kremlin's delaying the granting of visas to them. In 2003, the Kremlin had accepted 400 OSCE observers [iht.com], but after the OSCE condemned the 2003 election for being unfair, many folks in the Kremlin vowed to stymie OSCE's efforts in future elections.

      [ Parent ]
      • Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Fred_A (10934) <fred@wwna.nYEATSet minus poet> on Saturday November 24, @11:04AM (#21462871) Homepage
        What I don't get is why people still act as if Russia wasn't a dictatorship while it clearly is.

        It puts on a lazy show of elections like any dictatorship is expected to do, even goes as far as not having the party in power not win with 97% of votes but that doesn't change anything to the reality of what's going on there. Made up wars (although the "western" democracies seem to do that a lot lately), numerous murders, broadlight corruption at every level of the state...

        That the states play the "our good friend Putin" game because of the hydrocarbons flowing out of Russia is one thing, but that a lot of people still somewhat believe it's a "rough" democracy still baffles me (not that the parent poster sems to believe so).
        [ Parent ]
        • Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:5, Interesting)

          by iminplaya (723125) on Saturday November 24, @11:21AM (#21463007) Journal
          What I don't get is why people still act as if Russia wasn't a dictatorship while it clearly is.

          It doesn't matter. It never did. As long as they're not Communist, everything is hunky-dory.
          [ Parent ]
          • Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:5, Interesting)

            by happyemoticon (543015) on Saturday November 24, @11:47AM (#21463251) Homepage

            Then why does America still have such close ties to China? Nixon and Kissinger really helped improve things, true; both America and China had bones against the USSR; and it's better to be at peace than at war (at least in my opinion, but why is there no strong ideological war being carried out? The real answer is that they're awesome trading partners, unlike the inefficient, walled-off USSR. I feel like I'm playing a shell game, and at some point, "democracy" was replaced with "capitalism". As was said before, now that they're pumping dinosaur juice out to the rest of the world and we can build a McDonalds in Red Square, we like Russia.

            I suppose this is a trite observation. Of course democracy has been usurped by capitalism. I just hadn't really thought about it in terms of foreign policy before.

            [ Parent ]
                • Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:4, Interesting)

                  by ShieldW0lf (601553) on Saturday November 24, @05:17PM (#21465671) Journal
                  China isn't getting things in trade for those exports. They're exporting on loan, to the tune of billions and billions of dollars, and they're doing it so they can keep justifying the existing power structures where everyone goes to a factory to work while preventing too much wealth from being created that might lead to a cease in production.

                  They could accomplish the same goal by dumping the goods into the Pacific as quickly as they were made. The USA hasn't had anything significant to offer by way of trade in a long, long time. If you're going to talk about China-US relations, you really need to fully digest these realities, or you're going to end up way off.

                  To the people of China, working in those factories is no more practically useful than the Pyramids were to the Egyptians.
                  [ Parent ]
        • Agreed (Score:5, Insightful)

          by einhverfr (238914) <ctravers@ieee.org> on Saturday November 24, @02:41PM (#21464627) Homepage Journal
          I would add that Iran is clearly far more democratic than Russia is today. Russia is more like Iraq under Saddam, where elections occur but nobody has any possibility of being elected except Putin. Despite meddling in the elections by the Council of Guardians, there are actual and real political dynamics which exist in Iran today. No such real dynamics occur under Russia today.

          The big difference is that, unlike Saddam, Putin actually does have weapons of mass destruction.
          [ Parent ]
          • Re:Agreed (Score:5, Insightful)

            by zzidre (1193699) on Saturday November 24, @05:19PM (#21465681)
            Don't get me wrong, but when a son takes the presidency after his father, only delayed by a man whose wife is likely to take it over after them all, it really looks like the difference is only that there are two elite groupings instead of one.
            [ Parent ]
      • Re:Someone sieze that bitch Hillary (Score:5, Insightful)

        by rednip (186217) <rednip AT gmail DOT com> on Saturday November 24, @10:46AM (#21462725) Journal

        I wish our president had such powers to sieze anti-American politicians like Clinton
        I thought that was funny as hell and was about to moderate it as such, but the sad thing is, I'm not sure if hes kidding. As I've heard people say in all seriousness such things.
        [ Parent ]
          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            Move to Saudi Arabia then you too-scared-to-live-in-a-democracy little pussy. I can't stand Clinton either, but I'm not so pussyfied that I'd wanter her arrested for scaring me.

            If you can't handle freedom, go somewhere where you can have big-daddy-authori
  • Don't Worry (Score:5, Funny)

    by Zeinfeld (263942) on Saturday November 24, @09:45AM (#21462347) Homepage
    Don't worry. George Bush has looked at Putin's soul and pronounced it excellent.
    • Re:Don't Worry (Score:5, Funny)

      by gEvil (beta) (945888) on Saturday November 24, @10:04AM (#21462447)
      We can only assume he was comparing it to his own, in which case Putin's is excellent.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      Well, as Kasparov was born "Garri Weinstein" you might be correct. It might be that name the Russian's shun; history tells us so.
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      George Bush has looked at Putin's soul and pronounced it excellent.

      It's true, Bush did say something along those lines. To this day, that leaves me scratching my head till all my hair falls out. I've been keeping up with politics for a long time. But this.
  • In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EaglemanBSA (950534) on Saturday November 24, @09:56AM (#21462405)
    In Soviet Russia, they sieze dissidents. What, you were expecting a joke? 'Cuz this isn't funny.
    • Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Insightful)

      by shutdown -p now (807394) <int19h@gmail.com> on Saturday November 24, @10:13AM (#21462505)
      In Putin's Russia, they seize dissidents.
      In Soviet Russia, they shoot dissidents.
      Not quite there yet, guys.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:4, Funny)

        by TeknoHog (164938) on Saturday November 24, @10:37AM (#21462647) Homepage Journal
        In Putin's London, you are served a cuP o [wikipedia.org]f tea.
        [ Parent ]
      • Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Informative)

        by M. Baranczak (726671) on Saturday November 24, @11:14AM (#21462955)

        In Putin's Russia, they seize dissidents.
        In Soviet Russia, they shoot dissidents.
        Not quite there yet, guys.
        Where have you been? Putin's been killing dissidents for a long time. Ever heard of Anna Politkovskaya?
        [ Parent ]
          • Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Informative)

            by einhverfr (238914) <ctravers@ieee.org> on Saturday November 24, @02:54PM (#21464737) Homepage Journal
            And another dissident investigating her death is poisoned with Polonium...

            But Politkovskaya was no mere political dissident. She had been prevented from mediating an end to the standoff in Beslan but was poisoned on her way there. This lead her to accuse Putin of direct involvement in the school massacre. Soon after this, she is shot dead. Litvinenko, on investigating her death, is then poisoned with Polonium from a Russian nuclear reactor.

            Even if Politkovskaya's allegations of Putin's involvement in the Beslan massacre turn out to be inaccurate, the subsequent assassination of both her and Litvinenko can only be called state sponsor of terrorism.
            [ Parent ]
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        Really? [washingtonpost.com]
  • gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gargletheape (894880) on Saturday November 24, @09:59AM (#21462425)
    Surely a story about the greatest chessplayer of all time, and a key campaigner for civil liberties in Soviet Russia counts as "news for nerds" without some Deep Blue window-dressing. Do we really need to fake-tag this story as being about supercomputers to get it here?
    • Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Informative)

      by tverbeek (457094) on Saturday November 24, @10:34AM (#21462637) Homepage
      Adding that he's a "giant critic" of the Putin government is an improvement, but how about the fact that Kasparov is an actual candidate for president, hoping to be elected head of that government in March? This is akin to arresting Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama.
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Elemenope (905108) on Saturday November 24, @11:04AM (#21462867)

        In 2004, the Libertarian and Green candidates for President of the United States were arrested for attempting to enter the building in which the presidential debates were being held.

        Yes, it is that serious, and, yes, it does happen here.

        [ Parent ]
        • Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Interesting)

          by turgid (580780) on Saturday November 24, @11:35AM (#21463127) Journal

          And here in good old Blighty, let us not forget the frail, old Holocaust survivor who got arrested under Anti-Terrorism laws for shouting, "Nonsense," at a Labour Party conference.

          Keep on rockin' in the Free World.

          [ Parent ]
    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      Surely a story about the greatest chessplayer of all time, and a key campaigner for civil liberties in Soviet Russia counts as "news for nerds" without some Deep Blue window-dressing.
      Actually I think being the last human to hold the absolute title of "ch
  • "Stern but fair?" (Score:4, Insightful)

    by qw0ntum (831414) on Saturday November 24, @10:09AM (#21462477) Journal
    Who tagged this "Stern but fair"? Please explain how this is "fair" and not just more of Putin's power grab?
      • Re:"Stern but fair?" (Score:5, Interesting)

        by mapkinase (958129) on Saturday November 24, @10:54AM (#21462773) Homepage Journal
        I worked in Moscow for outsourcing company for several months. All of the developers were big Putin (and /.) fans. The popularity of Putin might be artificially bumped up by the relentless propaganda, but this propaganda plus excellent economic context works. People REALLY like Putin in Russia, brainwashed (which I am sure about) or not. So "fear of being imprisoned" as you nicely exaggerated has nothing to do with it.

        You have to understand the political climate in Russia to see that Putinism does not have many alternatives, given sincere dislike of what West looks like in the light of American foreign policy.

        Putin came to power "with the blood of Chechens up to his elbows", but he made some good changes in Russia after the lawlessness of 90's. That happened many time in history, that is how autocratic rulers usually come to power: after screw ups of democracy, they fix many things (and then they fall, of course, and that what will eventually happen to Putinisim as well). Autocratism vs democracy is like dinosaurs vs mammals. Dinosaurs are bigger and stronger, but mammals are more resilient.

        Kasparov and other liberal opposition have ZERO influence or support in Russia. The only (very weak as well) opposition in Russia is a Communist party (do not laugh, it is not funny). The West of course do not care and they will support this puppet liberal opposition, anyway...

        Putinism in Russia is for long for better or for worse (for whom?).

        And "fairness" has very little to do in politics. Laws are typically broken by the powers.
        [ Parent ]
  • Surprised? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Pecisk (688001) on Saturday November 24, @10:10AM (#21462483)
    Russia never was a democracy, and never wanted to be. At least seems to me.

    Yeah, I know, it sucks, because no one wants another Cold War. But seemingly US and West pays now for their lack of involvement of helping Russia to scurb corruption, investigating old crimes and anything else.

    Now we all pay the price.
  • by jacquesm (154384) on Saturday November 24, @10:14AM (#21462509) Homepage
    If the transition had been a little milder than it was then the crime bosses in Russia would not have been able to grab as much as they did. The last thing the new 'vlasti' want is to have their playground taken away from them. This is going to be an extremely tense time for Russia.
  • by antifoidulus (807088) on Saturday November 24, @10:31AM (#21462605) Homepage Journal
    stomach. He wouldn't have to worry about Putin arresting him at all. Kissing on the other hand.....
  • Meet the new boss... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Organic Brain Damage (863655) on Saturday November 24, @10:40AM (#21462673)
    ...he's not the same as the old boss. He IS the old boss.

    At least with Russia, the citizens can blame Putin for their woes. In the USA, we've got nobody to blame for Bush but ourselves.
  • Thug-ocracy (Score:4, Insightful)

    by MajorBlunder (114448) on Saturday November 24, @12:47PM (#21463741)
    I spent a couple of years living in Russia back in the Yeltsin years of the mid 90's. Overall Russians are extremely friendly and hospitable, but they have a long sad history of instituting governments that are in effect a legitimized mafia. From the 10th through the 19th centuries the rule of the Tsars were essentially a gang of thugs with pretensions of royalty. The better part of the 20th century they switched to a government that was another gang of thugs with pretense of communism. And now they have switched to a new band of thugs with pretensions of democracy. (Actually this is still the same band of thugs as the communist ones, they just switched pretensions). It seems that Putin is slowly dropping any pretense of democracy.
    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      You know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger... Big Blue might make you stronger, but the Russian Federation isn't big on the making-people-stronger part of the equation.
    • Re:another obligatory joke (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 24, @09:54AM (#21462393)
      First beaten by Blue, then by Red. For someone who spent the vast majority of their life pondering black and white, this has to be shocking splash of color.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:The Deep Blue Win (Score:5, Interesting)

      by florescent_beige (608235) on Saturday November 24, @11:58AM (#21463337) Journal

      He's got a massive ego, so people dismiss him as a bad loser. But his accusations of cheating aren't without merit [about.com].

      My respect for him has gone up quite a bit because of this incident. I wonder if I would have the courage to stand up to police and arbitrary imprisonment, knowing what Russian jails must be like these days.

      I hear lots of griping about the state of the world on /. and elsewhere, but I wonder if any of us would have the courage to put our beliefs into action like he has.

      [ Parent ]
    • by neomunk (913773) on Saturday November 24, @11:58AM (#21463339)
      Yeah, damn slashdot for being so against freedom of speech that they removed your post. I'm outraged! I REALLY wanted to reply and tell you how right you are, but now I just CAN'T because slashdot has gone and censored you. ...

      Show me the censorship. That's all I ask. Back that childish whining up with some bruises from the abuse you've taken. Oh, that's right, slashdot doesn't censor.... ever. That's right, I said it, EVER, as in being an absolute (I'm the kind of guy that likes to tack qualifiers and quantifiers on everything). That's why it's one of the few places I actually post instead of lurk. (I know, it looks like I'm saying I troll alot, I don't, I troll alittle, (and almost exclusively non-anon) I'm just principled about free speech like that)

      As far as your list of topics goes, you're not being censored, you're RIGHTLY being pushed to the back of the room by the CROWD (not the site) for being a... well... what IS the right-wing equivalent of a tin foil hat wearer? Oh yes, a Kool-Aid drinker. Very few of the little factoids you present have any basis in real-life at ALL, and those that do have a tenuous connection to reality at best.

      To sum up: You're not being censored for being 'edgy', you're being ignored for being ridiculous. You don't get to be a martyr for that.
      [ Parent ]