The memory of recent clashes with riot police in various cities is still fresh. Although his movement is still not large and it is meeting with fierce resistance, Mr Kasparov is hopeful about the future.
In March 2005, after a ninth resounding victory in the Linares tournament, former world champion Garri Kasparov finally ended his chess career in order to dedicate himself to politics. Mr Kasparov was no political newcomer. In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, he played an active role in various liberal political parties that were attempting to fill the ideological vacuum. But following a number of rifts, he turned his back on political activism.
Opposition
He is now firmly back in the saddle as leader of the opposition movement "The Other Russia" and the driving force behind the demonstrations taking place in an increasing number of Russian cities under the banner "March of those who disagree".
Mr Kasparov says his aim is to bring down the governing regime in Russia. To achieve this he is touring the provinces to win support. This might seem like a hopeless task in a country in which the opposition has no access to the central mass media, but Mr Kasparov remains undeterred.
"I can't say that our chances of dismantling the system quickly - next year for example - give much reason for optimism,"says Mr Kasparov. "But there is a chance. The stability of this regime doesn't correspond at all with the image presented by the Kremlin propaganda, the hypnosis to which Western media often expose themselves. We believe we have a chance of victory and it is our duty to do everything we can to make use of it." Mr Kasparov calls his opponents in the Kremlin "corrupt" and "incompetent".
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Garri Kasparov rallying his supporters |
Mr Kasparov was active outside the court in Moscow where until two years ago the trial of oil magnate Michail Chodorkovski was being held. The former director of oil company Yukos is now in a Siberian gaol - condemned on political grounds, according to Mr Kasparov.
At the court the chess grandmaster was almost arrested by the police. In December, at Mayakovski Square in the centre of Moscow, he addressed around 1500 opposition demonstrators, who were surrounded by 8000 police and observed by a low-flying helicopter that made the speech virtually inaudible.
Last month he joined demonstrators in a march through the centre of Russia's second city St Petersburg. They met with a violent response from the riot police. The same thing happened shortly afterwards in Nizhny Novgorod, where 20,000 police were said to have been deployed to quash a protest involving no more than a few hundred demonstrators. All this serves only to strengthen Mr Kasparov's determination.
"The authorities are afraid of us because we are a spontaneous movement. They aren't used to competition," he says. "We are assuming that the authorities will take extreme measures. As they did in Moscow on 16 December, in St Petersburg on 3 March and in Nizhny Novgorod. We are standing up for the constitutional right of all Russians to come together and express their opinion."
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Click to listen to a report by Geert Groet Koerkamp |
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Mr Kasparov has joined forces with opposition groups of very diverse political plumage, such as the now banned National Bolsheviks led by the eccentric writer Eduard Limonov, and also a group headed by former prime minister Mikhail Kasyanov, who worked closely with President Putin for years.
The Republican Party led by former member of parliament Vladimir Ryzhkov is also banned. This means that Mr Kasparov and his supporters' chances of taking part in the parliamentary elections in December, for example, are minimal. "That doesn't matter," says Mr Kasparov, "because the only elections that count in Russia are the presidential elections.""We have to agree on a joint presidential candidate, because the country's fate will be decided in the presidential elections,"says Kasparov. "The opposition now has a real chance of putting forward a candidate who can present a threat to the Kremlin and unite disparate opposition groups." He makes no comment as to who this candidate should be - himself, or perhaps former prime minister Kasyanov.
A section of the liberal Russian opposition, such as the Jabloko and SPS parties, maintain a distance from Mr Kasparov and his supporters. They want nothing to do with parties like the radical National Bolsheviks. Mr Kasparov hopes to reconcile these divisions before next year's presidential elections.
*Translated (mb) and Edited (cc) by RNW Internet Desk
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