Garry Kasparov and a new kind of ‘extremism’

While "extremism" is more associated with religious movements involved in terrorism and violence, it has also been made into a very effective device to defame those who have different philosophies on life and hold different worldviews, so much so that a certain segment of Turkish society still shamelessly portrays a movement -- that is the world's most moderate and tolerant organization and the most receptive of interfaith and intercultural dialogue and contributes to world peace in the most lasting manner with its worldwide educational and cultural activities -- as "extremist." During a speech delivered at a dinner privately held for high-ranking media managers as part of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN)-World Editors Forum (WEF) Congress, held in the Swedish town of Göteborg, we understood the full potential for the abuse of this word and the extent to which its meaning can be expanded.

Apart from the content of this speech, the life story of the person who delivered it is familiar to many and, without a doubt, features events that would strike many as interesting. The person who delivered the speech was Gary Kasparov, the world's greatest chess master, and I think you can already guess what I want to tell you. Kasparov says that he now uses his achievements in chess, which made him a legendary figure, and the tactics and strategies he developed for this game in the political realm. Kasparov, who keeps berating the Kremlin administration with his quick wit and extremely sharp style, succeeded in evoking a well-deserved feeling of admiration in the listeners who showed a keen interest in his speech.

For the last eight years, Kasparov has been directing very serious criticism at the Kremlin administration -- led by Vladimir Putin up until a short time ago -- in regard to violations of democratic rights and economic weaknesses, and he has been waging a remarkable struggle for democratic and civil rights through the civil movement he leads and the rallies and demonstrations he organizes. Of course, the attribute Moscow has come up with to describe Kasparov is very familiar: "extremist."

Kasparov -- who we can define as, at most, a liberal democrat, given his rhetoric, demands and actions -- has been arrested a number of times for his "extremist" activities. To highlight how ironic the accusations made about him are, he pointed out that even Grigory Yavlinsky, one of the most liberal and democratic figures on the Russian political scene, was also defined as an extremist by Putin's administration.

The biggest weapon of the civil movement, called "The Other Russia" and led by Baku-born Kasparov, which defends democracy, human rights, freedom of thought, speech and press, and individual rights and freedoms and fights for a fairer income distribution, is its civil activities.

Kasparov noted that Putin is still wielding as much influence as before despite the fact that the presidential office now belongs to Alexander Medvedev, adding that the world media have been wrongly buying into Russian legends in recent years. He provided a good number of examples of these false legends. Contrary to what is prevalently believed, it's not Russia or the Russian people, but a certain segment of Russia that has grown more affluent, he said, stressing that the Russian people are still faced with great financial pain because of a corrupt income distribution system, despite the fact that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) has witnessed a huge increase compared to eight years ago. Emphasizing that this year 82 Russians ranked in the Forbes' list of billionaires even though none were on the list eight years ago, Kasparov reiterated that Russia had not become richer; rather, a certain clique of Russian elites famed for their close ties to Putin have acquired vast wealth.

Kasparov contended that Moscow has become the world's costliest metropolitan area, having overtaken even New York and Tokyo. He also claimed that a significant number of Muscovites were literally fighting for survival on less than $100 a month due to the skyrocketing real estate prices and living costs in the city. He noted that Russia's economic growth did not have the slightest positive impact on the lives of 85 percent of the Russian population. The greatest problem of the Putin era was favoritism and corruption, Kasparov said. He noted that the country that saw the biggest amount of direct investment in Russia according to official records was Greek Cyprus, hinting that siphoned-off public resources were laundered through Greek Cyprus.

Arguing that Russian elections were neither fair nor transparent, Kasparov maintained that the purpose of the Other Russia movement was not to win elections but to simply have real elections held. Speaking quite passionately, he called on world leaders and the world media to renounce their current policy of portraying the Putin administration as successful and of not seeing its violations of democratic and human rights. The Putin administration uses such attitudes among foreign leaders and media as a source of legitimacy to repress its opponents, Kasparov noted, drawing the audience's attention to the fact that Russia was the second country after US-occupied Iraq with the greatest number of slain journalists and saying that this was not a coincidence.