Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has said ongoing efforts to engage in peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin are meaningless because the Kremlin leader has no intention of stopping his nearly five-year war on Ukraine.
Speaking in an interview with RFE/RL’s Russian Service, Kasparov said international efforts should focus on helping Ukraine achieve victory, adding that this could lead to Putin’s fall and a new chance for democracy in Russia.
“It’s one thing if talks have a chance of solving a problem, with mutual concessions. Putin’s plans have not changed. He set himself the goal of liquidating Ukraine as an independent country, and he has not abandoned it,” Kasparov said.
Fighting For Ukraine
After retiring from chess, Kasparov became a prominent opposition figure in Russia before heading into exile in 2013. Based in the United States, he is now head of the Free Russia Forum, which he founded in 2016. Kasparov has said he was recently warned by US authorities of a Kremlin plot to assassinate him.
Speaking to RFE/RL in Warsaw on October 11, Kasparov said exiled Russian political forces should be entirely focused on helping Ukraine win the war. To this end, his own organization had raised some $15 million for various projects in Ukraine.
“We are in direct contact with the Free Russia Legion and the RDK (Russian Volunteer Corps),” he said, referring to two Russian armed groups that have fought on Ukraine’s side. “We do fundraising for this.”
Kasparov also highlighted his work to lobby for Ukrainian causes in Congress, saying that on one occasion his group had persuaded 15 Republicans to switch their votes. This could not be independently confirmed.
As well as opposing Putin, the former grandmaster is also known for his longstanding criticism of US President Donald Trump, including Trump’s efforts for closer relations with Putin. Kasparov was scathing about Trump’s recently announced deal to purchase diesel from Russia.
“He continues to work in Putin’s interests. His recent comments are the most brazen violation of American laws, including sanction legislation which Trump himself signed,” Kasparov said. “His effort to pressure Ukraine seems to me connected to his desperate position three weeks before the (midterm) elections.”
Trump has said the deal to purchase Russian diesel will provide relief on US and international markets, where diesel shortages caused by the conflict with Iran and exacerbated by Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries have led to price spikes.
“Lower prices for Americans, especially our great farmers, ranchers, and truckers, is my greatest priority,” Trump posted on social media on October 9.
The diesel deal has encountered opposition from both sides of the aisle in Congress.
Democrats and former officials have also pointed to the Ending Importation of Russian Oil Act of 2022, which prohibits Russian oil imports into the United States unless the president certifies that Russia has met specified conditions, including withdrawing from Ukraine, recognizing Ukrainian sovereignty, and posing no threat to NATO.
Plotting Putin’s Downfall
Kasparov added his voice to a chorus of concern recently from senior officials in European NATO nations that Russia may be preparing some form of escalated aggression toward the alliance, amid what is widely regarded as an ongoing hybrid or shadow campaign that includes drone incursions, sabotage, and assassination attempts.
The Kremlin has consistently denied involvement in incidents blamed on it by Western officials.
Kasparov also said Putin was completely committed to continuing the war with Ukraine, describing it as “the ideological basis of Putin’s rule” visible in the scale of the Russian military budget and in its official propaganda.
“Either Ukraine will break under the attacks on its civilian population or it will endure, and then the [Russian] regime will collapse,” he said. “This doesn’t mean everything will be fine in Russia tomorrow. But the collapse of a regime always means a window of opportunity.”
Kasparov went on to say that the war had provided “fresh blood” to Putin’s power structure, pointing for example to the recent influx of war veterans to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament. Hundreds or thousands of others could be in other branches of the state hierarchy, he said.
However, opinion polls this year have shown falling approval ratings for Putin as the war drags on amid a mounting death toll and increased Ukrainian attacks on refineries, warehouses, and data centers that have affected everyday life in Russia.
Kasparov said defeat in Ukraine would fundamentally change the atmosphere in Russian society.
“I even believe the overwhelming majority (of Russians) could be prepared to accept democracy and the rule of law,” Kasparov said. “It seems to me that failure in war will inevitably force people to think about better alternatives.”
