December 01, 2007	Saturday	Ziqa’ad 20, 1428

MOSCOW: Chess legend turned opposition leader Garry Kasparov on Friday vowed to “dismantle” President Vladimir Putin’s rule after getting his first taste of a Russian jail on the eve of parliamentary polls.

At a news conference after he had spent five days in jail for public order offences at a protest on Nov 24, the former world chess champion said he would soon return to the political fray.

The 44-year-old, who leads The Other Russia opposition movement, said his instincts as a chess player told him that the Kremlin was now afraid because of the gap between state propaganda and the reality of hardship for many citizens.

He accused the Kremlin of breaking the rules in order to stay in power and said that the authorities’ next move would determine the course of action for the opposition.

Putin “is now being dragged into a game that has rules. He’s deciding his move and once the move is made he’ll be pulled into a process he can’t get out of,” Kasparov said.

“He’ll decide his move and then we’ll be able to decide ours,” he added.

Kasparov was speaking as Putin’s United Russia party was expected to win a crushing victory at parliamentary polls on Sunday that under new election rules are likely to exclude smaller parties.

The Russian leader’s every public appearance is being scrutinised for signs of his next steps as he is required by the constitution to stand down after March presidential polls.

Putin has said he expects to retain an influential role but has not specified what this will be, while no heavyweight presidential candidate has come forward.

Putin himself has rejected claims that Sunday’s parliamentary polls will be marred by unfairly positive media coverage of the ruling party or by ballot violations.

Kasparov, considered by some to have been the world’s greatest chess player, predicted that by the start of next year, parties that had hitherto been in “soft” opposition would lose patience and unite against the Kremlin.

“The dismantlement of the Putin regime, not just a change of political course, but a dismantlement of the Putin regime will become the purpose of any existing opposition,” Kasparov said.

“At least a third, maybe more of the Russian electorate don’t have any political force that they support and that already makes the elections a farce.

And the volume of falsification, violations and the volume of suppression of opponents already makes the current regime illegitimate,” he said.—AFP