Garry Kasparov is keeping up his attacks on the government of Vladimir Putin. Since January he has done so as the Chairman of the Committee 2008: Free Choice, a Russian pro-democracy coalition that is dedicated to stopping Putin from keeping power in 2008. Last week Kasparov had another strong editorial in the Wall Street Journal, bashing Putin's government on its reaction to the Beslan horror and on Chechnya. You might wonder if Kasparov won't become the second world champion to have his passport revoked this year...
This week, today actually, Kasparov in in Hamburg speaking to the Baltic Development Forum on the prospects for relations between Russia and Europe. Even if the subject matter doesn't interest you, that there will be an online video of the event might. The organizers say there will be streaming video of Kasparov's 15-minute address this evening at their website. You probably have to go to the "Videofeatures" link.
Update: Still no sign of a video link, but we've posted the entire address at ChessBase.com with pics. Video of it should be on a future ChessBase Magazine.
CBC Television put a 10-minute program featuring Kasparov (interviewed by Dan Bjarnason) on prime-time news about a week ago. The subject: Putin.
The only use of Kasparov's political rantings is the following scenario:
1.Kasparov is arrested by direct orders from Putin
2.Mig and the rest of global business community are outraged. They put pressure on Putin.
3.The political prisoners Fischer and Kasparov are exchanged Powers-Abel style.
I'm still hoping Kamsky passes the bar in time to represent Fischer.