Kasparov

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By Alex Bregman

Garry Kasparov, chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, author of “Winter Is Coming” and Russian pro-democracy leader, spoke to Yahoo News and Finance Anchor Bianna Golodryga about Donald Trump’s praise of Vladimir Putin, Russia potentially hacking U.S. election systems and what Putin might think of Hillary Clinton’s health episode.

Kasparov thinks Putin is happy about the focus on Clinton’s health and her pneumonia diagnosis. He told Golodryga, “I’m sure Putin was thrilled to see this health crisis and I have no doubt that Russian press both inside and outside of the Russian control press will try to capitalize on it, because it enhances Trump’s chances to win the elections, and I believe that’s Vladimir Putin’s utmost goal for the next few months.”

On Trump’s praise of Putin, Kasparov said, “In Russia, Putin’s political opponents, they are either in exile, in jail or even worse. Dictator by definition is a strong man, a strong leader. So if you praise, especially if you keep praising strong leadership of a dictator, one can suspect if you are supporting the methods a dictator uses and keeps using to stay in power.”

Kasparov thinks Trump’s tax returns might reveal why he’s praising Putin. He said, “I think, you know, if we before the election, if we have a chance to look at Donald Trump’s taxes, maybe we’ll find some answers, because obviously, you know, he has some reasons to praise Putin. I think it goes beyond, you know, the political necessity.”

Kasparov also suspects Trump might be jealous of the Russian president. “I think there’s some kind of, you know, psychological connection, affinity,” he said, “because Trump might be jealous of Putin’s ability to control the country the way Putin has been doing for years.”

Kasparov considers Trump a dream candidate for Putin and sees Hillary Clinton as someone Putin fears in the White House. He told Golodryga, “Putin believes that if Trump wins, he is the biggest geopolitical winner, Vladimir Putin.” He continued, “I think he believes that if Hillary Clinton gets to the White House, despite all the deficiencies of her policy when she was secretary of state and the fact that she’s from the same party as Barack Obama and she’s criticizing him openly, Putin knows that Hillary Clinton will not continue the same defeatist policies and she learned a lot … and I think there’s enough bad blood. So he has reasons to be afraid of Hillary being there because she could perform, in my view, way above the expectations, her foreign policy will be quite hawkish because, I mean, she’s pragmatic.”

Finally, Kasparov believes Putin has every reason to want to hack into the American state election systems. He told Golodryga, “Putin has a unique opportunity that was never thought of by any KGB or Politburo boss before to influence the results of this elections. And I think that [he] will use every opportunity that is given to him from hacking, and we already saw the effect of this hacking, and I’m afraid it’s just the beginning.”