Chess Champ Kasparov Sounds Putin Warning

Newsmax | December 23 2004

It didn't work with Adolph Hitler and it's not likely to work with Russian President Vladimir Putin either.

That's the ominous warning of 1980s world chess champ Garry Kasparov.

Writing in Tuesday's Wall Street Journal, Kasparov says as long as the West continues to support Putin as he moves towards reestablishing Soviet-era authoritarianism, the Russian leader is going to continue along that course.

In 1936, the world thought that allowing Berlin to host the Olympics would placate a power-mad Hitler. As history shows, it didn't.

Neville Chamberlain, Britain's prime minister at the time, also tried appeasement with Hitler. Chamberlain's reward was the Battle of Britain in 1940, in which Hitler tried to use his air force to level the island nation.

"Treating dictators kindly doesn't soften a regime; it only makes it more arrogant and aggressive," Kasparov wrote.

He should know. He remembers the communist dictatorships that once ruled the former Soviet Union with an iron fist. As part of the democracy movement that helped bring down one of the world's most threatening regimes, he sees similar authoritarianism emerging in Putin.

"Perhaps Western leaders agree with last week's New York Times editorial that made the stunning assertion that 'a fascist Russia is a much better thing than a Communist Russia,'" Kasparov wrote. "I hope I am allowed to order something not on that menu. I am not ready to throw up my hands and surrender to the Putin dictatorship. It is still possible to stand up to the dictator and to fight for democracy."

He goes on to say the U.S. and the rest of the Western powers should lead the battle for democracy. Or they should get out of the way.

"If the United States and the European powers are not willing to help us in this new fight, at the very least they should stay out of the battle and stop giving aid to the forces of fascism," he said.

President Bush and Putin are scheduled for a summit in February. Will the president stand firm against Soviet-style authoritarianism like his predecessor, Ronald Reagan, or will he placate Putin like Chamberlain?