Garry Kasparov Warns That Vladimir Putin Is The Enemy of the Free World

My guest today is the Garry Kasparov.  For 20 years he was the World Chess Champion and is widely considered to the greatest chess master of all time. Then in 2005, he retired from chess to become a political activist in his native country of Russia. He has since become the most vocal and high profile critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. In 2008, he even ran for President against Putin’s hand-picked successor Dimitri Medvedev until being forced out of the election due to rampant corruption and election fraud by pro-Putin forces in Russia. Today Garry Kasparov is in self-imposed exile in New York, where he serves as chairman of the Human Rights Foundation and continues to call for reform in Russia and an end to the corruption and oppression of Vladimir Putin.   He has a new book called WINTER IS COMING: WHY VLADIMIR PUTIN AND THE ENEMIES OF THE FREE WORLD MUST BE STOPPED.  He says Vladimir Putin is no longer just Russia’s problem and he could pose a serious threat to world peace and free countries everywhere. Kasparov says talks about Russia’s rocky path to democratic reform in the 1990’s and the factors that made it easy for Vladimir Putin to quickly begin to roll back freedoms in Russia and consolidate his power. Kasparov says that Putin is a ruthless dictator with disturbing parallels to Adolf Hitler, and he will hold on to power at all costs.  Plus, just wait until you hear what he says Vladimir Putin may do if energy prices plummet.  It’s a wake-up call to the free world with my guest Garry Kasparov.   If you enjoy this episode then you can order Garry Kasparov’s new book WINTER IS COMING: WHY VLADIMIR PUTIN AND THE ENEMIES OF THE FREE WORLD MUST BE STOPPED on Amazon. You can also download the audiobook for free thanks to a special promotion for our listeners at www.audible.com/kickasspolitics. You can also follow Garry Kasparov at www.kasparov.com or at Twitter at @kasparov63.   And before you do your online shopping for the holidays, visit our site at www.kickasspolitics.com and click on the Amazon link on our sponsor page. If you do that then Amazon will donate a portion of your holiday purchases to help support the podcast. It won’t cost you anything extra. Just do your holiday shopping for books, clothes, jewelry, electronics, etc. on Amazon, and your purchase will help keep us up and running here at KickAss Politics.   Another very important way that you can support the show is by helping us reach our end of the year fundraising goal before Christmas. Please donate at www.gofundme.com/kickasspolitics or click on the donate button on our website. Please subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and leave us a glowing review.  Thanks for listening!