Kasparov said Putin is bent on “creating chaos, creating problems, creating wars, [which] is his only justification of staying in power.
“He knows that the economy will never work in his favor any more in Russia, so he has to sell a different mythology to Russian people. That’s why as long as Putin stays in Kremlin in power, he will create problems.
“Unfortunately, there are too many opportunities for him to create problems. I believe he and the Iranians will try to push ISIS, the Islamic State … against Saudi Arabia because if Saudi Arabia, God forbid blows up, it will push oil prices. This is Putin’s number one priority.”
The U.S. and its allies can defeat ISIS. Joining with Putin, Assad and Iran’s regime would be immoral.
By: GARRY KASPAROV
Three days after coordinated terror attacks in Paris killed at least 129 people and put the lie to President Obama’s recent claim that Islamic State was “contained,” Mr. Obama took to the podium on Monday. Speaking from Antalya, Turkey, where he was attending a G-20 meeting, he threw the full weight of his rhetoric behind solidarity with France and behind the French military response against Islamic State, or ISIS. But he offered no policy changes. In other words, once again America is leading from behind.
Mr. Obama’s remarks in Turkey came after he sat down for an impromptu discussion with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who has shipped troops and military hardware to Syria to prop up the Bashar Assad regime and to produce desperately needed new war propaganda back home. A suggestion gaining currency in recent days—encouraged by the Putin-Obama photo op—that the U.S. and NATO cooperate with Mr. Putin against ISIS is ludicrous on many levels. The most obvious one being that Russian forces aren’t in Syria to fight ISIS.
Even after the death of 224 people—most of them Russian tourists—in the Oct. 31 Metrojet crash in Egypt that was almost certainly an ISIS terror bombing, Mr. Putin remains focused on his goals. He is in Syria to help Iran and Mr. Assad destroy any legitimate alternatives to the status quo. What is that status quo? The Assad regime and its Iranian backers controlling the region by force.
Recap of my Winter is Coming event in San Francisco last night. My thanks to the Commonwealth Club and @adellenaz!
SAN FRANCISCO — World-famous Russian chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov has made no secret Monday evening of his fierce disdain for Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian rule and for his gang of oligarchs in their war against the West–including the United States of America.
The title of the book–also, coincidentally, the title of the first episode in the first season of the hit TV series Game of Thrones–is meant to serve as a warning about the impending doom that the world will face should the West continue down its path of chronic appeasement, weakness and moral capitulation on which Putin depends to maintain his power.
He compared Putin’s manipulation of his image as being too powerful to be ousted with the way Adolf Hitler portrayed himself in Germany during the 1930s once the Nazi leader had risen to power. The main difference, he pointed out, is that Putin has nuclear weapons.… Read More
