Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov warned Friday that Russian elections continue to be a “charade,” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin would rule Russia for the rest of his life.
“Everybody understands now, in Russia and outside of Russia, that he’s there for life,” Kasparov said on C-SPAN Friday morning. “Elections in Russia are not going to change anything.”
“Vladimir Putin throughout his political career never participated in a single debate,” he added.
Kasparov said Russia is the world’s biggest security threat, and while that idea has been dismissed by President Obama, Putin has lately been blamed for pushing the U.S. into an Iran nuclear agreement that has been criticized in the United States. Putin’s decision to give military aid to opponents of Syria’s government has also been seen as a direct affront to the United States, as was Russia’s move to annex the Crimean peninsula.
Kasparov said that when Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney listed Russia as the world’s biggest threat, Romney was right.
“He got it right,” he said of Romney’s assessment in 2012. “I don’t think Romney understood how right he was.”
He noted that while Russia continues to send troops and military equipment to Syria, all the U.S. sends is “John Kerry,” referring to the current secretary of state.
“This man has been steadily destroying my country,” Kasparov said of Putin. “He’s a dictator who’s quite desperate for staying in power.”
“And now he has been searching for enemies outside of Russia since he ran out of enemies inside the country,” he added. “I’ve been saying that Vladimir Putin, who was for a long time our problem … will eventually be everyone’s problem.”
