Garry Kasparov at a blitz chess tournament, 2026. He is also a cool, analytical thinker off the board.Image: imago-images.de
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov is considered a sharp critic of Russia and dictator Vladimir Putin. A current interview with the 63-year-old intellectual provides exciting insights.
July 6, 2026, 7:15 p.mJuly 6, 2026, 7:15 p.m
Garry Kasparov gave an interview to the Austrian media. In the interview, he commented on the war in Ukraine, the threat to Western democracies and the social consequences of artificial intelligence.
Here are his most interesting statements.
Will Putin stop the war of aggression?
One of Kasparov’s interviewers first asks him about Ukraine’s successful military counterattacks. Recently, oil refineries and targets in Moscow and St. Petersburg were attacked with drones.
Is it therefore a danger for Putin that the people of Russia feel the effects of the war?
Kasparov’s sobering answer:
«Russia is sick and characterized by paranoia. If Putin loses ten thousand soldiers, he doesn’t bat an eyelash. He has a strong survival instinct, without which he would not have remained at the top of the largest mafia organization in the world for 26 years. Putin knows that it would be political suicide for him to end the war under current conditions. In Russia, tsars and dictators fell when wars went badly.”
Is Russia escalating the war against Europe?
This answer also makes you sit up and take notice:
Deep down, Putin knows that he will not succeed in Ukraine. But will other European capitals be able to cope with attacks? “Putin expects that within the next two years most European countries will have governments that are very friendly to him.”
France is specifically mentioned, which will elect a new president in 2027 and which, according to Kasparov, currently has to choose between “two Putin sympathizers”. Meanwhile, the pro-Russian AfD is becoming increasingly stronger in Germany.
Although Putin lost his “friend” Viktor Orbán in Hungary, he gained one in Bulgaria. And in Austria the FPÖ is the most popular party. The right-wing populists are considered extremely pro-Putin and have long maintained close ties to Moscow.
What can we do?
The Putin critic living in exile says:
I also think it is very important to put Putin’s elite under pressure. Loyalty to Putin is not based on ideology, but on money.”
Kasparov argues that the people in Putin’s inner circle and the bureaucrats who have become rich must understand that the war will mean their downfall.
Chess genius and Putin opponent
Garry Kasparov is considered one of the greatest chess players in history. Born in Azerbaijan in 1963, he grew up behind the Iron Curtain under the Soviet reign of terror. He officially held the title of World Chess Champion from 1985 to 1993. Since his retirement from professional chess, Kasparov has worked as an opposition and democracy activist and regularly criticizes Russian ruler Vladimir Putin and the regime in the Kremlin. In 2014 he took Croatian citizenship. He now lives in exile in the USA and Western Europe.
Image: Sandra Day O’Connor Institute For American Democracy
Will things get worse after Putin?
Here Kasparov is cautiously optimistic:
“A dictator who has ruled for 25 years is the backbone of the entire system. Everything is built around him and his inner circle. If it disappears, competing centers of power will emerge. And five criminals at a table are better than one. Because they have to negotiate with each other. Someone will start thinking and say: Maybe we should talk to Zelensky and the EU. And once they start negotiating deals and interests, an opportunity arises.”
The influence of new technologies
Warfare has changed fundamentally because of new technologies, especially drones, says Kasparov. And he predicts that this will result in “massive political and social changes”.
“The real danger for the West is that China is behind Russia. Everything China learns from this war flows directly into Chinese systems.”
But China is also a threat to Russia’s future. The regime in Beijing is making massive territorial claims on Russian territory. Personally, he considers this to be “a far more important expansion of China than Taiwan.”
And the future leadership of Russia will have to decide: Do they want to turn to Europe, pay reparations, i.e. pay for the war damage and accept Ukraine’s existence as an independent nation? Or do you want to become dependent on China?
What is the biggest danger due to AI?
When asked about the changes due to artificial intelligence, Kasparov reacts in a pleasantly calm manner. He speaks of a great hysteria surrounding ChatGPT and other systems that are based on large language models (LLM).
«It is becoming increasingly clear that these systems are not what many expected of them. They are important tools – but not machines that will replace us. My message is: The real threat to your job does not come from AI, but from another human who can use AI better than you.”
Why don’t Western politicians say that Russia must lose?
Kasparov also has a clear opinion on this:
«We no longer have leaders, but rather managers whose primary goal is to maintain the status quo. Many are afraid to say that Russia must lose. Because they don’t know what happens next.”
Historically, there is only one way to change something socially and politically in Russia, and that is a lost war. Nothing else has led to changes in the past 200 years.
Will Putin use tactical nuclear weapons?
Kasparov says no:
«This is a bluff. The mafia regime is ultimately interested in personal enrichment. Nobody there is willing to die for Putin. Putin is not Stalin or Hitler, but rather Don Corleone. Dying is not part of the business model. In the event of a nuclear weapon being used, everyone would be a target – including Putin himself.”
Is America lost because of Donald Trump?
When asked about the 250th anniversary of the United States, Kasparov said:
“My problem is not just the president, whom I criticize morning, afternoon and evening. Political life in the USA is becoming increasingly polarized. The positions on both sides are becoming more and more extreme. This is the greatest danger to American democracy.”
And now you!
What do you think of Kasparov’s assessments and forecasts about the threat to Europe from autocratic states like Russia and China, about AI and the USA?
Write to us via the comment function.