Kasparov: Russia is a mafia state today, and Putin is its top godfather. The regime is in trouble economically and can no longer offer anything to its citizens. That’s why Putin has to pursue an aggressive foreign policy, so he can serve his people the fairy tale of Russian pride and regaining its strength as a major power.
From Ukraine to Syria, he is behaving like the world’s new general and celebrating victories, while the American president sits on the sidelines and Europe sleeps. The West’s behavior toward Putin is political and moral capitulation.
SPIEGEL: Now you’re really exaggerating.
Kasparov: No, I’m not. People would have been shaking their heads in disbelief if someone had predicted, 15 months ago, that Putin would annex Crimea and grossly violate European postwar borders. Then came the expansion into eastern Ukraine, and now the direct military intervention in the Syrian war, on the side of mass murderer Bashar Assad. Putin needs wars to legitimize his position. It’s the only move he has left. (…)
SPIEGEL: You aren’t seriously comparing Putin with Hitler and Obama with Chamberlain, are you?
Garry Kasparov: I’m aware of how sensitive these appeasement comparisons are, especially in Germany. But I do think there are unmistakable parallels. (…)
SPIEGEL: But the West did react decisively and sharply to the annexation of Crimea. Some say too sharply. Russia was excluded from the G-8 group until further notice, and the European Union and United States were unusually united in imposing economic sanctions on Russia and travel restrictions on politicians and business owners with ties to the Kremlin.
Kasparov: I welcome that, in principle. But the sanctions and travel restrictions would have to be far more comprehensive to be truly painful for Putin and his inner circle. (…)
We are living in a new ice age, and we need to apply the recipes of the Cold War to the Kremlin. That means isolation instead of offers of negotiation. Ukraine should have been supplied with weapons long ago.
SPIEGEL: Achieve peace with even more weapons?
Kasparov: The country has to be able to defend itself.
(…) (…)
Kasparov: His aggression is like a drug. He has to keep upping the dose, which increases the risks for him.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/garry-kasparov-interview-putin-needs-wars-a-1061942.html
. . . Aaaaannd a lot of other people.
Yeah, just for people who didn’t even read the summary above, Kasparov said:
It was easy to predict that Putin would be violating borders to expand Russia based on his extremely recent history of violating borders to expand Russia.
me actually. i remember because a friend said, “no, owning a port is a legitimate interest, and russia needs it economically, blah blah blah.” and I remember telling him that it was naive to ignore russia’s annexation of crimea, and that this was an invitation to the next step.
putin only talks one language and that is power.
Zizek said it a while ago too, claiming that the general disbelief in a coming war actually increases the chances of a war. Voters and politicians as well as economists were getting careless because a war was just unthinkable and made dangerous deals with Russia that blew up in our faces.
Wasn’t McCain one of them? The last republican with some modicum of decorum.
I believe Romney also called Russia out as a key geopolitical foe in a debate and Obama quipped something about the 1980s calling and wanting their foreign policy back. That aged like milk.