WASHINGTON: Kremlin critic and chess legend Garry Kasparov on Tuesday called for a stronger Western response to Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine and said Russian dissident voices must be included in efforts to stand up to Vladimir Putin.
In an interview with AFP, the former world chess champion who last week was put on Russia’s list of “extremists,” called for more military aid to Kyiv against a “terrorist regime that only understands force.”
Kasparov, 60, blamed the Kremlin for the death in prison last month of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and said it marked a new low in Putin’s crackdown on dissent.
“Navalny’s murder...is a new milestone,” Kasparov said. “We are dealing with an enemy who wants to win this war, because Putin is waging war not only against Ukraine, NATO and the EU, but also against the liberal world order.”
Navalny, the Russian president’s main opponent, died suddenly at the age of 47 in an Arctic prison in mid-February of what officials said were “natural causes.” Navalny’s team and Western leaders blame the Kremlin, which denies responsibility.
Navalny was buried in Moscow earlier this month, with tens of thousands of Russians queuing to lay flowers despite the threat of arrest in a striking display of dissent. His widow Yuliya Navalnaya pledged to continue his work.
Kasparov, widely viewed as one of the world’s greatest chess players, retired from chess in 2005 to focus on political activism and has lived in exile in New York for the past decade.
In the interview, Kasparov urged the West to include Russian opposition voices in efforts to oppose Putin’s aggression.
“In order to defeat Putinism and all the forces of evil that it represents, there needs to be a coalition that would include this Russian component, like (Charles) de Gaulle’s Free French,” Kasparov said referring to the French resistance movement during World War II, which de Gaulle headed from London.
“The people who are ready to say: ‘The regime is illegitimate, the war is criminal, Crimea is Ukrainian’ must become a part of this fight.” Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
Kasparov said he and other dissidents are working on formulating a path forward for the Russian opposition. “We need to create a matrix of a free Russia outside of Russia today, what we call half-jokingly a virtual Taiwan.”
The Russian opposition, however, is notoriously fragmented and Navalny’s team has in the past clashed with Kasparov.
Fresh disagreements emerged among Kremlin critics in recent weeks over how to register protest in this weekend’s presidential election, which Putin is sure to win without any real opponents allowed on the ballot and election officials under his thumb.
Kasparov urged Western countries to welcome anti-war Russians, including programmers and engineers involved in the making of drones and other weapons.
“Give them a chance to leave, give them a chance to switch to the other side,” Kasparov said. “I think this would sharply undermine Putin’s ability to wage war.”
Kasparov expressed frustration with the West’s reluctance to fully back Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion, now in its third year. Kyiv has been struggling on the battlefield with crucial aid military delayed in the US Congress.
Kasparov said Western sanctions imposed on Russia have achieved little and called on more funding for Ukraine, including from confiscated Russian assets, and long-range missiles.
President Joe Biden “promised devastating consequences. And where are those devastating consequences?” Kasparov asked.
“Unfortunately, the West is lagging behind, and any weakness demonstrated by the West is an invitation to Putin for more aggression.”
Kasparov spoke to AFP on the sidelines of a gathering in Washington of the World Liberty Congress, a coalition of pro-democracy activists from 60 countries.
“We believe that from Russia to Venezuela, to China to Africa, all the authoritarian regimes and dictators are working together... voting for each other at the United Nations,” said US-based Iranian dissident Masih Alinejad.
“The bad guys are united,” Alinejad, who heads the organization, said at a joint press conference. “The time has come for the good people from authoritarian regimes to be united as well to expand our ideology, which is democracy, dignity, and freedom.”
Formed last year, the World Liberty Congress espouses non-violent protest, provides support to grassroots activists in home countries as well as political prisoners and their families.
Putin ‘only understands force:’ Russian chess legend
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Putin ‘only understands force:’ Russian chess legend
- Garry Kasparov, 60, blamed the Kremlin for the death in prison last month of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and said it marked a new low in Putin’s crackdown on dissent
- Kasparov, widely viewed as one of the world’s greatest chess players, retired from chess in 2005 to focus on political activism and has lived in exile in New York for the past decade
DHL cargo plane crashes into a house in Lithuania, killing at least 1
- The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a “DHL cargo plane
VILNIUS: A DHL cargo plane crashed into a house Monday morning near the Lithuanian capital, killing at least one person.
Lithuanian’s public broadcaster LRT, quoting an emergency official, said two people had been taken to the hospital after the crash, and one was later pronounced dead. LRT said the aircraft smashed into a two-story home near the airport.
The Lithuanian airport authority identified the aircraft as a “DHL cargo plane flying from Leipzig, Germany, to Vilnius Airport.”
It posted on the social platform X that city services including a fire truck were on site.
DHL Group, headquartered in Bonn, Germany, did not immediately return a call for comment.
The DHL aircraft was operated by Swiftair, a Madrid-based contractor. The carrier could not be immediately reached.
The Boeing 737 was 31 years old, which is considered by experts to be an older airframe, though that’s not unusual for cargo flights.
UN chief slams land mine threat days after US decision to supply Ukraine
- The outgoing US administration is aiming to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump enters office
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines ‘very important’ to halting Russian attacks
SIEM REAP, Cambodia: The UN Secretary-General on Monday slammed the “renewed threat” of anti-personnel land mines, days after the United States said it would supply the weapons to Ukrainian forces battling Russia’s invasion.
In remarks sent to a conference in Cambodia to review progress on the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty, UN chief Antonio Guterres hailed the work of clearing and destroying land mines across the world.
“But the threat remains. This includes the renewed use of anti-personnel mines by some of the Parties to the Convention, as well as some Parties falling behind in their commitments to destroy these weapons,” he said in the statement.
He called on the 164 signatories — which include Ukraine but not Russia or the United States — to “meet their obligations and ensure compliance to the Convention.”
Guterres’ remarks were delivered by UN Under-Secretary General Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana.
AFP has contacted her office and a spokesman for Guterres to ask if the remarks were directed specifically at Ukraine.
The Ukrainian team at the conference did not respond to AFP questions about the US land mine supplies.
Washington’s announcement last week that it would send anti-personnel land mines to Kyiv was immediately criticized by human rights campaigners.
The outgoing US administration is aiming to give Ukraine an upper hand before President-elect Donald Trump enters office.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the mines “very important” to halting Russian attacks.
The conference is being held in Cambodia, which was left one of the most heavily bombed and mined countries in the world after three decades of civil war from the 1960s.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet told the conference his country still needs to clear over 1,600 square kilometers (618 square miles) of contaminated land that is affecting the lives of more than one million people.
Around 20,000 people have been killed in Cambodia by land mines and unexploded ordnance since 1979, and twice as many have been injured.
The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) said on Wednesday that at least 5,757 people had been casualties of land mines and explosive remnants of war across the world last year, 1,983 of whom were killed.
Civilians made up 84 percent of all recorded casualties, it said.
Philippines’ Marcos says threat of assassination ‘troubling’
- Security agencies at the weekend said they would step up their protocols
MANILA: Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday he will not take lightly “troubling” threats against him, just days after his estranged vice president said she had asked someone to assassinate the president if she herself was killed.
In a video message during which he did not name Vice President Sara Duterte, his former running mate, Marcos said “such criminal plans should not be overlooked.”
Security agencies at the weekend said they would step up their protocols and investigate the statement, which Duterte made at a press conference. The vice president’s office has acknowledged a Reuters request for comment.
An average of 140 women and girls were killed by a partner or relative per day in 2023, the UN says
- The agencies reported approximately 51,100 women and girls were killed in 2023
- The rates were highest in Africa and the Americas and lowest in Asia and Europe
UNITED NATIONS: The deadliest place for women is at home and 140 women and girls on average were killed by an intimate partner or family member per day last year, two UN agencies reported Monday.
Globally, an intimate partner or family member was responsible for the deaths of approximately 51,100 women and girls during 2023, an increase from an estimated 48,800 victims in 2022, UN Women and the UN Office of Drugs and Crime said.
The report released on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women said the increase was largely the result of more data being available from countries and not more killings.
But the two agencies stressed that “Women and girls everywhere continue to be affected by this extreme form of gender-based violence and no region is excluded.” And they said, “the home is the most dangerous place for women and girls.”
The highest number of intimate partner and family killings was in Africa – with an estimated 21,700 victims in 2023, the report said. Africa also had the highest number of victims relative to the size of its population — 2.9 victims per 100,000 people.
There were also high rates last year in the Americas with 1.6 female victims per 100,000 and in Oceania with 1.5 per 100,000, it said. Rates were significantly lower in Asia at 0.8 victims per 100,000 and Europe at 0.6 per 100,000.
According to the report, the intentional killing of women in the private sphere in Europe and the Americas is largely by intimate partners.
By contrast, the vast majority of male homicides take place outside homes and families, it said.
“Even though men and boys account for the vast majority of homicide victims, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by lethal violence in the private sphere,” the report said.
“An estimated 80 percent of all homicide victims in 2023 were men while 20 percent were women, but lethal violence within the family takes a much higher toll on women than men, with almost 60 percent of all women who were intentionally killed in 2023 being victims of intimate partner/family member homicide,” it said.
The report said that despite efforts to prevent the killing of women and girls by countries, their killings “remain at alarmingly high levels.”
“They are often the culmination of repeated episodes of gender-based violence, which means they are preventable through timely and effective interventions,” the two agencies said.
Russia says it downs seven Ukrainian missiles over Kursk region
Russia’s air defense systems destroyed seven Ukrainian missiles overnight over the Kursk region, governor of the Russian region that borders Ukraine said on Monday.
He said that air defense units also destroyed seven Ukrainian drones. He did not provide further details.
A pro-Russian military analyst Roman Alyokhin, who serves as an adviser to the governor, said on his Telegram messaging channel that “Kursk was subjected to a massive attack by foreign-made missiles” overnight.
