Russian Police Seize Kasparov

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.

obigatory joke

[2.7182 (819680)]

Checkmate!
Seriously, this sucks.

Re:obigatory joke

[sentientbeing (688713)]

He's obviously just a pawn in all this.

Re:obigatory joke

[SlashThat (859697)]

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 :)

Re:obligatory joke

[Aminion (896851)]

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.

Re:obligatory joke

[Spy der Mann (805235)]

Even less while imprisoned.

They said the same about Nelson Mandela...

Re:obigatory joke

[shutdown -p now (807394)]

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.

The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess

[reporter (666905)]

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.

Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess

[iminplaya (723125)]

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.

Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess

[happyemoticon (543015)]

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.

Re:Someone sieze that bitch Hillary

[rednip (186217)]

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.

Re:obigatory joke

[Kiffer (206134)]

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 ...

Don't Worry

[Zeinfeld (263942)]

Don't worry. George Bush has looked at Putin's soul and pronounced it excellent.

Re:Don't Worry

[gEvil (beta) (945888)]

We can only assume he was comparing it to his own, in which case Putin's is excellent.

Re:Don't Worry

[Jugalator (259273)]

-1: Woosh.

Re:Don't Worry

[fastest fascist (1086001)]

3. It was an honest opinion, expressed in support of a guy doing things how Bush would like to, if he could.

In Soviet Russia

[EaglemanBSA (950534)]

In Soviet Russia, they sieze dissidents. What, you were expecting a joke? 'Cuz this isn't funny.

Re:In Soviet Russia

[shutdown -p now (807394)]

In Putin's Russia, they seize dissidents.
In Soviet Russia, they shoot dissidents.
Not quite there yet, guys.

Re:In Soviet Russia

[M. Baranczak (726671)]

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?

gratuitous IBM inclusion

[gargletheape (894880)]

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

[tverbeek (457094)]

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.

Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion

[Elemenope (905108)]

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.

Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion

[turgid (580780)]

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.

Re:another obligatory joke

[by Anonymous Coward]

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.

Re:"Stern but fair?"

[mapkinase (958129)]

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.

Re:The Deep Blue Win

[florescent_beige (608235)]

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.