By Martin Banks - 10th November 2011
Former world chess champion Gary Kasparov has delivered a withering attack on the legitimacy of the current regime in Moscow.
Speaking in parliament, the Russian political activist said, "Russia is no longer part of the democratic map."
His comments come ahead of next year's presidential elections and in the wake of recent comments by Russian president Dmitry Medvedev, who said he decided not to run for a second term because Vladimir Putin is both more popular and more authoritative.
Putin's bid to return to the top post he held between 2000 and 2008 has angered the country's weak opposition and Kasparov issued a stark warning about Russia's future during a meeting in parliament.
He told the meeting, organised by the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group, "In Europe you have elections with fixed rules and unpredictable results. In Russia we have elections with unpredictable rules and fixed results."
Kasparov warned that "for Putin, what counts is your bank account. He is not using tanks but using banks".
He said, "You do not have to be Sherlock Holmes in order to see the huge spread of Russian money across parts of the EU."
But he warned that Russian wealth was "clearly" concentrated on a few in Moscow, saying that travelling "even 20km outside of Moscow is like travelling in a time machine".
Kasparov, who later spoke at a news conference, has founded a foundation which teaches the educational benefits of chess to young people in Europe.
He was invited to parliament by ECR member Marek Migalski in order to give his perspective on the process about to be undertaken in Russia, which he says cannot truly be described as an 'election'.
Speaking after the event, Migalski said, "It was a great honour to host Kasparov in the parliament and to hear his unique perspective on the events within Russia.
"For Putin, it is clear that power is far more important than democracy. Across the EU we must stand firm to our values of freedom and plurality of which we are so proud, and confront those - especially on our doorstep - who reject those values. We hope that we have opened a dialogue with those who want greater freedom and democracy for the people of Russia."
