On the day that Magnus Carlsen successfully defended his chess world championship against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, it was a real pleasure to read former chess champion Garry Kasparov taking Tucker Carlson to task for his on-air tongue-baths of Vladimir Putin. It’s not surprising that Kasparov is a rigorously logical thinker, but it’s amazing how well he writes in English. I love how he phrases things.
Is the United States being too hard on Putin, as Carlson argues? Far from it.
If the rule of international law is to matter at all, Putin’s mafia gang should be sanctioned into oblivion until every inch of Ukrainian territory is returned. Kick his oligarchs and their families out of their posh properties in the free world, where they enjoy luxuries that few Russians can dream of—like freedom of speech. Seize their looted assets, treat them like the criminals they are. All this leverage is available, but the will to use it has been absent.
As for Carlson’s motivations for taking Russia’s side in any dispute with Ukraine or the West, Kasparov is appropriately perplexed but still has some plausible answers.
This makes Carlson’s blather about being too tough on Putin even more laughable. Putin is a hostile actor, an enemy who has repeatedly attacked American interests abroad and in the homeland. Russian hackers and disinformation campaigns target everything from racial strife to vaccine effectiveness to US elections. Why would a flag-wrapped nationalist like Tucker Carlson take Putin’s side? Because Putin took Trump’s? Because he’s admiring of Putin’s authoritarian powers?
Or perhaps it’s that Trumpists, much like Putin, don’t see democracy as anything but trouble despite their claims of being freedom-loving patriots. Praising a dictator is to praise dictatorship, and what could be more un-American than that?
In his post-match press conference in Dubai today, Magnus Carlsen was somewhat blunt about his opponent’s shortcomings. He said of Nepomniachtchi that all the preparation in the world is no help if you cannot cope with the pressure. Perhaps that was a bit impolite, but seeing how Nepo crumbled after his first setback in Game Six of the championship, it was an unavoidable conclusion.
Putin is putting a lot of pressure on NATO and the West by building up his military forces on Ukraine’s borders. Kasparov is reminding us that we need resolve and resilience, because preparation alone is not sufficient.
As Kasparov notes, Putin isn’t being wronged by his critics.
Contrary to Tucker Carlson’s pleas, Putin’s assault on Ukraine has nothing to do with NATO or any threats real or imagined against Russian borders or national security, about which Putin cares nothing anyway. Like every other decision Putin makes from morning to night, it was about keeping his grip on total power in Russia.
Attacking Ukraine and seizing Crimea in 2014 served the dual purpose of distracting Russians from their many woes and disrupting Ukraine’s unwelcome move toward democracy and Europe—and away from Putin and his kleptocracy model.
Kasparov retired from competitive chess in 2005, but now he wages his battles in the service of democracy. It’s good to see that he does it in grandmaster form.
