Will this get him killed eventually?

The question has been asked before, however it remains as relevant as ever. I still believe the most likely answer is no, but I’m pretty sure a lot of other options are still on the table. Via Susan Polgar’s blog:

MOSCOW — Chess master Garry Kasparov staged the latest of his guerrilla hit-and-run protests against the Kremlin on Wednesday, showing up at the criminal trial of a former billionaire and engaging in a brief, heated debate with one of the prosecutors.

Spectators gawked and whispered when Kasparov sat on a front bench in the courtroom where Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once Russia’s richest man, is being tried on charges he embezzled billions of dollars while he was the chief of the Yukos Oil Company.

Kasparov and other supporters of Khodorkovsky say he is chiefly guilty of making an enemy of former President Vladimir Putin.

Last week Kasparov used a similar gambit, popping up Friday at a ceremony in Sochi during the mayoral race in that city, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics. He managed to do what the challengers on the ballot hadn’t: confront the Kremlin-backed candidate, Anatoly Pakhomov.

…

Kasparov, one of the most famous of the Russian opposition leaders, said before the trial began it was his “civic duty” to demonstrate support for Khodorkovsky.

…

The latest Khodorkovsky case is seen as a test for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has called for judicial and political reforms and for broader participation in elections.

These measures would reverse the course set by Putin, Medvedev’s mentor and predecessor, who rolled back democratic reforms during his eight years as president.

“As long as this trial continues, the talk of liberalization remains just talk,” Kasparov said at one point. “It makes the whole concept of law and justice a sad joke.”

…

I must admit that I admire Kasparov. He has had a wonderful career, he’s one of the most brilliant chess players that have ever lived, and he could do pretty much whatever he wanted to for the rest of his life. He has a lot to lose, and the expected personal gains from his current activities are very small. Yet still he spends most of his time now working for democratic reforms and speaking out against the tyranny of the current regime. He has some idiosyncrasies, yes; some of his ideas are a little odd, yes; but that’s the case with most of the world’s significant dissenters.

Oh, a short addenda: I have not written about Iran during the last weeks, even if I’m well aware a lot of stuff is going on there. If you want to know more about that subject, read about it somewhere else – preferably other blogs. The short version of my owns views is this: a) (Of course) the whole election was a fraud, both in theory (who were allowed to run) and in praxis (massive voting fraud). b) Ahmadinejad sucks, and most of the alternatives, including Mousavi, suck marginally less. c) I know very little about Iran and thus do not feel confortable writing about this subject. Also, I wouldn’t say that I don’t care about what goes on in Tehran these days, I just don’t care enough to blog much about it. As said, lot’s of other people do.

A little recycling is probably in order:

Garry Kasparov and Stephen Cohen on Russia

Garry Kasparov and professor of Russian studies at New York University Stephen Cohen debates Russian politics here. The program lasts an hour, and I don’t expect the link to continue to work indefinitely (because of the 10 minute limit on youtube videos), so if you’d like to watch you should not hesitate to click the link. The debate itself lasts approximately half an hour.

In case you were in doubt, Kasparov is not a crackpot. It’s far too easy to just discard his views like this – on some points I must admit I agree far more with Kasparov than with mr. Cohen, especially when it comes to his evaluation of Gorbatjov. Yes, if you look closely you’ll find some stuff you don’t like, but that’s just the way it is no matter who you’re dealing with, especially if you’re actively looking for the flaws (Kasparov has a few of those of course – ie. his obsession with oil prices). Remember by the way when watching this debate that English is his third language (after Azeri and Russian).

Kasparov arrested – and the double standards of UNHRC

From debatableland, a new blog I did not know about (HT: Megan McArdle), I learn that Kasparov was arrested yesterday at a demonstration in Moscow. Even with the aid of his bodyguards he could not stop this from happening. Until now Putin has mostly treated him like a circus clown or some crazy has-been, and I have seen this angle reflected in a few western medias as well. I guess Putin has become annoyed enough by now to want to draw a line in the sand.

Surely, this doesn’t really mean anything. It certainly doesn’t mean that Russia has any problems when it comes to freedom of assembly and freedom of speech – she is after all on “our” side in “the war against terror”, rigth? This means that she sides with freedom and democracy and can thus do no wrong. Of course it means that. And of course it was all right to detain Kasparov. Even if it wasn’t, “we” should not risk losing an important ally by criticizing Putin. He, or his successor, might choose to side with the Arabs, who knows? No need for any international reactions. What’s the big deal anyway – lot’s of countries break up peaceful demonstrations and throw their participants in jail, right? Why should the US or Denmark or the UN criticize this, just because it takes place in Russia? After all, it’s not like if there are any double standards at play here – we sure wouldn’t expect to hear anything about it if stuff like this happened in, say Israel, right?

Oh, wait a sec, we in fact do not _ever_ hear about something like this happening in Israel, even though we hear about a lot of other things that takes place there. Why is this, I wonder? Perhaps it’s because in Israel, like in Denmark and the US, people are _not_ thrown in jail for going out in the streets to complain about stuff. That in turn is because, unlike in Russia, Israelis are allowed to express their anger and recentment in the open, because the media are not controlled by the government. Not everything is all rosy of course. But Israel is a democracy in which people who are discontent are allowed to speak out and criticize the things they don’t like. They don’t risk ending up dead by criticizing the president. As far as I’ve understood the situation, this is what half the population spend most evenings doing. Not much different from the situation in the US, is it?

It’s a funny thing then, that during the nine months the UN Human Rights Council has existed, it has passed nine resolutions against Israel for human rights violations. That’s not the whole story of course. And well, this is not the funny part either. The funny thing is that _no other country_ has been subject to resolutions from the Council yet.

The illegal and immoral abuse of power exercised by Vladimir Putin these years is one of the things that I’d like to be higher on the Council’s list of priorities. As is the genocide taking place in Sudan. “Deep concern” doesn’t quite cover it now, does it? I’d love it if they got the, hrm, time to look into things like Kareem’s case. A lot of things to talk about wrt. China as well.

For some reason or another, I doubt that the Council will change it’s ways in the nearest future. I’m not holding my breath.

The UN Human Rights Council is a sick joke.