Garry Kasparov is a Russian chess Grandmaster and often called the greatest chess player of all time. He is also the author of Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped. On the Federalist Radio Hour, Kasparov shared stories from his 78-year-old mother who grew up under Stalin and discussed what the U.S. could have done differently in their relationship with Russia after the Cold War.
Kasparov said that a dictator who runs out of enemies in his own country, will eventually begin looking for enemies elsewhere. “Eventually [Putin] would be the problem for everybody,” he said. “At certain points he will have no other arguments to stay in power and to justify his eternal rule, as to create more conflicts and war.”
He described Putin’s propaganda in Russia as having no positive elements. “It’s about war. It’s about finding enemies. And it’s very difficult for people who are not unreasonable not to believe this propaganda,” he said.
According to Kasparov, U.S. foreign policy from 1991 to today has been a pendulum that eventually created a vacuum. “If you create a vacuum, it doesn’t stay empty for too long,” Kasparov said. “In politics is works as we’ve seen in the Middle East and elsewhere.”
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