5/18/2005 - I read this interesting interview conducted by MIG with Garry Kasparov. Garry has made some interesting points. |
Kasparov excerpts :Or both of Kerry’s views?Yes! But in Russia today all of television is under control, the print media is mostly under state control, and there are very few media outlets that can afford to criticize Putin and promote out views. So my status can be an important entry. We’re not fighting for positions of high office, we’re just fighting to make sure we have campaigns, election, a chance for people to vote for or against us. We’re at a very early stage of a political fight. It’s about making sure democracy survives. Then we could consider the next steps.By technical standards, Russia right now doesn’t even qualify to join the European Union, let alone the G7. I thought that stood for the seven great industrial democracies, but I don’t know in which part of that definition Russia fits into right now. “Great” you can argue, but as for “industrial” and “democracy,” it just doesn’t qualify. No free elections, no independent judiciary, no free media.Some people say, and we know their names, Berlusconi, Blair, Chirac, Schroeder, to a lesser extent Bush, who at least has said a few things, they say that this is a special kind of “Russian democracy.” They didn’t buy this story from other people, from Pinochet, for instance. The West won the Cold War because of a strong moral stand. It stood on the pillars that guarantee its moral superiority. Today, it’s nice to talk about democracy in Iraq, but not at the expense of democracy in Russia. Making the world safe for democracy should have universal standards and application. If it’s split into regions, fighting for democracy here, but over here no, that’s not going to work. |
Hangin's take:
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Chessbase article -
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2388
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