Garry Kasparov
Prison in absentia for Kasparov, for justifying terrorist acts. The chess legend has been abroad for more than a decade, but is in the Kremlin’s sights for helping to “organize a terrorist community” and “trying to seize power”.
A court in the Russian Federation sentenced the multiple world chess champion Garry Kasparov the prison sentence in absentia for considering him guilty of justifying terrorist acts through his criticism of the war against Ukraine.
“The court issued a precautionary measure against Kasparov, ordering his arrest in absentia, for two months, from the moment of his arrest in Russia, or his extradition to Russian territory,” declared the judge, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.
Kasparov was accused of “publicly justifying terrorism in telecommunications networks, including the Internet”, an offense whose expected penalty could be imprisonment for between five and seven years.
The mythical chess player has lived abroad for more than a decade, but was included in the list of “foreign agents” from Russia in May 2022.
In October, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB, in its original acronym) opened a criminal case against the tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other prominent Russian opposition figures, all in exile and founders of the Russian Anti-War Committee (ARC), including Kasparov, for “organizing a terrorist community” and “trying to take power”.
According to the FSB, Khodorkovsky and the other ARC founders “fund Ukrainian militarized groups “branded” as terrorist organizations in Russia and allegedly recruit other individuals, then use them in plans to seize power in Russia by force.”
The ARC was founded on February 27, 2022, three days after Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine, with the stated aim of combating the “aggressive dictatorship” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been in power for a quarter of a century.
