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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.
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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Firehose:Russian Police Seize Kasparov by Anonymous Coward
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obigatory joke (Score:5, Funny)
Seriously, this sucks.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
what, what?
Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Funny)
In Soviet Russia, Pawns seize Kasparov!
sigh... I had to say it
Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Funny)
Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:obligatory joke (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:obligatory joke (Score:4, Interesting)
Even less while imprisoned.
Re:obligatory joke (Score:5, Interesting)
They said the same about Nelson Mandela...
Re:obligatory joke (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:obigatory joke (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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)
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 (Score:4, Interesting)
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).
Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:5, Interesting)
It doesn't matter. It never did. As long as they're not Communist, everything is hunky-dory.
Re:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:5, Interesting)
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:The Kremlin Plays Brutal Chess (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Agreed (Score:5, Insightful)
The big difference is that, unlike Saddam, Putin actually does have weapons of mass destruction.
Re:Agreed (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Someone sieze that bitch Hillary (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
If you can't handle freedom, go somewhere where you can have big-daddy-authori
Don't Worry (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't Worry (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Don't Worry (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:Don't Worry (Score:5, Insightful)
In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Insightful)
In Soviet Russia, they shoot dissidents.
Not quite there yet, guys.
Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:4, Funny)
Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Informative)
In Soviet Russia, they shoot dissidents.
Not quite there yet, guys.
Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Informative)
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.
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Informative)
Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Interesting)
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 (Score:5, Interesting)
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: (Score:3, Interesting)
"Stern but fair?" (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:"Stern but fair?" (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Surprised? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
this is all still a remnant of Gorbachev's legacy (Score:4, Insightful)
See, if only Kasparov had a soft, supple (Score:3, Funny)
Meet the new boss... (Score:4, Funny)
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)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:another obligatory joke (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Kasparov's allies... (Score:4, Informative)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Civil_Front [wikipedia.org]
Which is part of a larger organization:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Other_Russia [wikipedia.org]
This more a case of politics makes strange bed fellows. All those groups have one thing in common: opposition to the current government and the direction Russia is heading. Take that common cause away, and I doubt many of these groups would have much to do with each other.
So saying Kasperov is guilty by association in this context isn't exactly fair.
Re:The Deep Blue Win (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Since slashdot is also against free speech (Score:4, Insightful)
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.