Speaking in an interview with Polish private broadcaster TVN24 on Wednesday, the former world champion said that the future of Vladimir Putin’s regime “depends on sanctions.”
Kasparov added that if the free world persevered with punitive measures against Russia “until Ukraine is liberated” and until war criminals are brought to justice, it could bring about “regime change” in the Kremlin.
War crimes are 'in the matrix of the communist regime’
Asked about Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine, Kasparov mentioned the 1940 Katyn Massacre of Polish army officers and intellectuals at the hands of the Soviets.
“These crimes are very much in the matrix of the communist regime,” he said, adding that the current Russian state was “more like fascism, but still a totalitarian dictatorship,” Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Meeting with Polish PM
Earlier on Wednesday, Kasparov met in Warsaw with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
The Polish prime minister wrote on Facebook afterwards that “the Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov is a fierce critic of the Kremlin who understands that the future of the free world is being fought about in Ukraine.”
Morawiecki added: “We met to discuss how to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, the mistakes that the late Polish President Lech Kaczyński warned us about.”
Kasparov is in Warsaw as a special guest of the Warsaw Rapid and Blitz, a prestigious chess event that is a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
Featuring Poland’s Jan Krzysztof Duda and some of the world’s top grandmasters, the five-day tournament begins at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw on Thursday, the PAP news agency reported.
Thursday is day 85 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, tvn24.pl