Russian Police Seize Kasparov 495
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.
Re:gratuitous IBM inclusion (Score:5, Informative)
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.
In a Russian City, Clues to Putin's Abiding Appeal (Score:2, Informative)
As Bill Clinton would say: "It's the economy, stupid". From the article:
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:In Soviet Russia (Score:5, Informative)
In Soviet Russia, they shoot dissidents.
Not quite there yet, guys.
Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:3, Informative)
Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:1, Informative)
Tell that to Anna Politkovskaya [wikipedia.org].
Re:Perhaps that was meant as some joke (Score:3, Informative)
Followed your link, actually read further than the summary, and it turns out GP was right!
From the Wikipedia page that you linked:
Re:"Stern but fair?" (Score:3, Informative)
Political parties - no matter how disgusting, crackpot, or offensive - are not banned in the U.S. I'm not aware of any Nazi Commie parties, but we have just plain Nazis and just plain Commies (and probably even a radical Islamist party) and they're perfectly legal.
Re:In Soviet Russia (Score:3, Informative)
Ever heard of Anna Politkovskaya?
I hadn't, so I looked it up. The Wikipedia article is here [wikipedia.org]. It's an unfortunate story. It makes me recall an NPR segment where a reporter was mentioning that the journalistic freedoms and protections we have in the larger, more powerful countries don't exist in elsewhere. Because of this, journalists have a reasonable expectation of protection from harm, but elsewhere there is no real journalism because everyone gets killed. It's too bad Russia is going down that route.
Re:Mod GP "Funny" (Score:3, Informative)
Thank you I'll be here all week!
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:obigatory joke (Score:3, Informative)
Re:obigatory joke (Score:3, Informative)
Re:obligatory joke (Score:3, Informative)
- In October 2005, at least eighty-five people were killed in street fighting in the southern Russian city of Nalchik after Chechen rebels assaulted government buildings, telecommunications facilities, and the airport.
- A three-day attack on Ingushetia in June 2004, which killed almost a hundred people and injured another 120.
- A December 2002 dual suicide bombing attack on the headquarters of Chechnya's Russian-backed government in the Chechen capital, Grozny. Russian officials claim that international terrorists helped local Chechens mount the assault, which killed eighty-three people.
- A bomb blast that killed at least forty-one people, including seventeen children, during a military parade in the southwestern town of Kaspiisk in May 2002; Russia blamed the attack on Chechen terrorists.
- In Moscow, an August 1999 bombing of a shopping arcade and a September 1999 bombing of an apartment building that killed sixty-four people, and two more terrorist bombings in September 1999 in the neighboring Russian republic of Dagestan and southern Russian city Volgodonsk. Controversy still surrounds questions about whether these attacks were conclusively linked to Chechens.
- In 2004, when Basayev, ordered an attack on a school Beslan, a town in North Ossetia. More than 300 people died in the three-day siege, most of them children. There were thirty-two militants, all but three or four were non-Chechens, and all but one were reportedly killed during the siege.
Why should the people of Russia demand change in the policy against Chechens when the image they portray is not that of the righteous freedom fighter, but that of the ruthless, child killing terrorist? If my child was held hostage and then slaughtered, I wouldn't have much sympathy for their cause, either.