This week George Negus interviews former chess champion and former Presidential candidate Garry Kasparov about the upcoming Russian elections.

In 2007, Kasparov entered the Russian Presidential race, receiving 379 of 498 votes at a congress held in Moscow by The Other Russia.

This weekend as Russians head to the polls to vote for their new president, Kasparov is calling for an election boycott and protests on the streets.

He's also calling on Western nations to snub Putin's hand-picked successor and the all but certain new president, Dmitri Medvedev.




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Have Your Say: Do you think a Medvedev-led government will be good for Russia?Garry Kasparov was the world's youngest-ever chess champion. Since then, he's become a leading opposition figure in Russian politics, even daring to take on the country's ex-KGB leader Vladimir Putin and his all-conquering if dubiously elected United Russia Party. It's a tussle that last year landed Kasparov in jail, had him frozen off the airwaves and shut him out of the electoral process, such as it is. With Russia's presidential poll this coming Sunday, earlier this evening George Negus talked with Garry Kasparov from Moscow.

TRANSCRIPT


GEORGE NEGUS: Thanks for joining us. We know you as Garry Kasparov, the chess master, but we don't really know you as Garry Kasparov, the political punching bag. Why have you decided that you can take on an immovable, apparently immovable object like Vladimir Putin?

GARRY KASPAROV, LEADER, THE OTHER RUSSIA COALITION: It is not about Vladimir Putin, it is about my country. I have been playing for my country for 25 years and I believed that my country was in great trouble and I did not see any choice for me but to do my best to save my country from an upcoming disaster, and I do not agree that Vladimir Putin is an immovable object. It is a country leader, you may call it 'President', some may call it even an authoritarian leader, but at the end of the day this is the man who brings my country in the wrong direction.

GEORGE NEGUS: Indeed. On Sunday you have your elections and you have called for Western nations to snub the victor, who looks almost certain to be Vladimir Putin's personal choice. You call for a boycott of the election and protests. What do you think the outcome will be in Sunday's election, the impact upon your country?

GARRY KASPAROV: Please do not mislead your audience by using the word 'election'. And has nothing to do with the current political farce we are objecting here today in my country. This regime

GEORGE NEGUS: Not just you, a lot of people are in fact suggesting that the election is far from democratic and is a farce. And you agree?

GARRY KASPAROV: No, it is not we were far from democratic standards four years ago. Now it is not an election at all, because everyone knows the results, even by the percentage. Medvedev will make around 75%, it is already published by so-called public polls run by the Kremlin's, special Kremlin groups, and from a normal perspective that is more of the power transition within complicated Byzantine palace intrigue. And recognising Mr Medvedev as a legitimate ruler of the country, democratic country, will be a grave mistake. Putin had some kind of legitimacy because in 2000 and 2004, we had elections which were far from democratic standard, but still elections. Accepting Medvedev now will be redemption of this farce.

GEORGE NEGUS: All that considered, do you think, therefore, the result of your upcoming election is a foregone conclusion, that there might as well not be a vote?

GARRY KASPAROV: We discovered a lot of regions where results were rigged. And in some regions it was 99%, in one region it was even 109% for Putin's United Russia. So that is why nobody cares how people vote and how many people do vote. At the end of the day, it is already, as you say, a foregone conclusion.

GEORGE NEGUS: Why you think the rest of the world, particularly the Western world, appears to be sitting on its hands and doing nothing about this unbridled authority and power and influence that Putin and his cohorts have in your country at the moment? I mean, is there a case that could be put for regime change in Russia?

GARRY KASPAROV: No, no, it's let's separate several issues. Putin is our domestic affair. Democracy is our domestic affair. If we can't win elections, if we can't force government to have elections, that means we're probably not ready. But what we want, what we kept asking the Western leaders, especially G7 leaders, stop providing Putin with democratic credentials, because any time Putin and now it will be Medvedev is sitting with leaders of the free world, that gives Kremlin a unique shield against our criticism, because they are saying, "Look, Bush, Blair, Brown now, Chirac, Sarkozy, Berlusconi, whoever..." they are with Putin, they are taking him in this in-circle as one of the equals. "So who are you guys here, you are radicals, extremists, marginals, who are you to criticise Mr Putin's democratic record?" So business is business, and I understand there are huge commercial interests on both sides, in Russia and outside of Russia. There are hundreds of billions of dollars of funds transferred from Russia into the Western economies, especially to Western Europe, and nobody wants to break up relations, but you do not have to. The West has been doing a lot of business with China, but nobody rushed to call Chinese communist leaders democrats.

GEORGE NEGUS: Is it true that you are convinced that Vladimir Putin has become Russia's richest man while he has been in office, and his money is being stashed away in foreign banks. Did you seriously suggest that?

GARRY KASPAROV: Absolutely. I have no doubt that Putin is, again, richest in Russia, or one of the richest, but obviously his personal wealth should not be less than those that benefited greatly from his regime. That is very simply. He can put all of them in jail in 24 hours, and you seriously suggest that he did not benefit while all his friends made billions, tens of billions of dollars, and that's not a secret.

GEORGE NEGUS: Garry, can I quote you from an ex-KGB general. He said, "You can expect anything with this regime, and Kasparov has been very vocal and very personal in his criticism of Putin. I would not be surprised to hear about something terrible happening to him." Do you feel personally at risk?

GARRY KASPAROV: I think anybody who is so open and vocal against Putin's regime is at risk, and I have to share the same risk as thousands and thousands of activists across the country. Yes, I try to protect myself. I have bodyguards here, I try to avoid consuming food and liquid in Aeroflot planes, if I have to take such a fight. I do not go to the restaurant unless I know people well. But I understand that it may not be in vain if the government decides to take the drastic action, but at the end of the day I have no choice. I have to be one of the activists who are taking this risk if we want to oppose the regime.

GEORGE NEGUS: Let's assume on Sunday that you are right and Medvedev gets up and Putin becomes prime minister and remains the man holding the power strings. Will you continue? Would you continue your political efforts, or is it futile?

GARRY KASPAROV: No, we continue our fight because we're not fighting Putin, we're fighting the regime. We're fighting the regime which is a deadly threat to our country. We believe that if the regime survives, the country dies. But this regime will not make it to 2012. Within two years, it is going to face a major crises, its infrastructure falling apart, there's the social crisis, the widening gap between the rich and poor, also the banking crisis, the huge inflation, just 2.3% in the month of January. And there will be an inevitable political crisis, because I do not think Putin will stay long as a prime minister if he takes his position at all. It might be all a figure of speech, because Putin is a KGB man and I would not take everything he says for granted.

GEORGE NEGUS: Good talking to you. It sounds like you're saying that you can take the man out of the KGB, but you can't take the KGB out of the man. It will be interesting to see whether your predictions will come true. Thanks for talking to us.

GARRY KASPAROV: Absolutely. Thanks for inviting me.

CREDITS

Interview Producer/Researcher
JANE WORTHINGTON

Editor
STEPHEN HARROP

Local Support
ILYA KOUZNETSOFF