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Kasparov is ready to take risks · 2007-04-19 17:14

President Putin and Garry KasparovRussia’s FSB may use the fight against “extremism” as cover to shut down opposition movements, former world chess champion and political activist Garry Kasparov said today.

“What they’ll try to do is scare me off,” Kasparov said in an interview with Bloomberg in Moscow.

Kasparov and former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov organized marches against Putin in Moscow and St. Petersburg over the weekend that ended in Kasparov’s arrest.

Some 9,000 police were deployed at the Moscow rally, which ended with baton-wielding officers breaking it up. Kasparov said that 400 were arrested. Police put the figure at 130.

The Other Russia, a loose coalition led by Kasparov and Kasyanov, plans to hold more marches, perhaps in several cities simultaneously, Kasparov said.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied the Kremlin sees Kasparov as an extremist, while adding that he couldn’t comment on the FSB investigation into his activities.

“We understand that Mr. Kasparov is not a radical,”’ Peskov said in an interview today at his office in the Kremlin. “Mr. Kasparov is a magnificent chess player. But I would not be influenced by his speeches.”

Kasparov said the FSB interest in him may lead him to spend time in jail. “I should be ready to take the same risks as thousands of our activists across the country who do not enjoy the same protection.”

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