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Garry Kasparov is regarded as one of the best chess players of all time.
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His success within the Soviet Union's chess team in the 70s and 80s, has made him a household name around the world.
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Chess is 100% transparent game.
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Information, which is available for me, at the board, is also available for my opponent, and vice versa.
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It's about making projections.
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What will happen on the chess board five or 10 moves from now.
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After retiring from chess in 2005, Mr. Kasparov changed his game, moving into politics.
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He tried to challenge a new opponent, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.
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People compare many things to chess.
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You can hear chess metaphors all over the place, whether in politics or at war.
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In 2007, Mr. Kasparov announced he would run against Mr. Putin in the presidential election.
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But he was not experienced in the game of politics and it wasn't much of a contest.
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He failed to secure a place on the electoral ballot.
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He now lives in exile, in America.
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Mr. Putin won that move.
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But what game is Mr. Putin playing with the West?
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The idea that Putin is a great chess player is very far from reality.
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Dictators, they always like to operate in secrecy and Putin is a KGB dictator.
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Secrecy, blackmail, those are the rules of his game.
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The game that is far more consistent with Putin's habits is a game of cards.
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Poker.
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Where you can start reading your opponents, bluffing and raising stakes.
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In 1999 Mr. Putin took over as Russian president from Boris Yeltsin.
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As Eastern Europe transitioned from communism to democracy relations between Russia and the West improved.
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But after the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, Mr. Putin became increasingly hostile.
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He felt that America was meddling in Russia's sphere of influence.
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In 2007, he used his speech at the Munich Security Conference to voice his angry criticism of American foreign policy.
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America and it's allies kept their poker face.
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I thought the speech was very aggressive, but we welcome the dialogue and look forward to further discussions.
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In 2007 in Munich, Putin made very blatant statement about his plans to recover Russia's influence in the former Soviet Union.
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It's a watershed moment where is a difference in language being used by both sides.
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Dictator believes that he sent a message.
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The other side thinks, oh we just, well we're being tested.
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In 2014, Mr. Putin embarked on his most aggressive move yet.
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Annexing Crimea and later invading part of Ukraine.
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In Crimea, Russian troops occupied the streets, but they had no insignia on their uniforms and there was no acknowledgement from Russia that it was involved.
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Crimea went very smoothly.
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All elements of the game being well prepared.
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Putin didn't care very much about Western reaction to the annexation of Crimea, because he already saw no reaction when he did his attack on Republic of Georgia in 2008.
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Mr. Putin had already tested the West six years earlier, during the five day war with Georgia.
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Unwilling to confront Russia directly, some Western leaders blamed the recklessness of Georgia's president at the time.
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In the case of Russia's war with Ukraine though, the West responded by imposing sanctions on Mr. Putin's inner circle.
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I guess that the sanctions was kind of a surprise to him.
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It was definitely more than Putin expected.
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In 2012, the United States drew a red line in Syria.
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It told President Bashar al-Assad that if chemical weapons were used by their regime, America would take military action.
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But just one year on, the regime killed 1400 of it's own people with sarin gas.
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America failed to act and it emboldened Mr. Putin.
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When the UN Security Council met in 2015 to discuss how to stop the Syrian regime, President Putin was at the table and was about to call America's bluff.
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Assad had to go, that's what Obama said.
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Now Putin wants to prove that Obama was wrong.
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All of a sudden he goes to New York for General Assembly, meets Obama.
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Looking in his eye, shaking hands, to show the Russian television that he Putin went to America, he tried to improve relations.
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Next day, Russian planes bombed American-backed opposition in Syria.
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In the US presidential election of 2016, the FBI says that Russia used cyber-attacks and social media to undermine trust in democracy and help get Donald Trump elected.
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How about first discrediting the elections, the institute of democracy?
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Troll factories that were built in Russia, to fight Russian opposition, to create fake news.
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13 Russian nationals have been indicted in America for interfering and damaging the prospects of the Democratic candidate, Hilary Clinton.
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So how would Garry Kasparov play against Mr. Putin?
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He says that engagement has failed.
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Instead he thinks the West must isolate and deter Mr. Putin and his inner circle through a strategy of economic sanctions, visa limitations and seizure of assets.
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Of course we can call his bluff, of course we can keep raising stakes.
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But at the end of the day, as long as we keep being blackmailed in this geo-political casino, Putin can be viewed as the winner of the game.
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But it's a temporary game.
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It's in our hands, to make sure that his tactical gains will be turned into strategic losses.
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So it's not a game of cards, but it's the game that I know much better, this is a game of chess.
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And this is where strategy is everything.