The city court of Syktyvkar, Russia, arrested in absentia the world chess champion and co-founder of the Free Russia Forum (FRF), Garry Kasparov, together with several other activists, on charges of creating a “terrorist community”, financing “terrorist activities” and having publicly incited terrorism. Russian and Ukrainian media reported it.
Escaped Russia in 2013
Activist Yevgeniya Chirikova, former executive director of the Russian Solidarity Movement Ivan Tyutrin and former MP Gennady Gudkov were also arrested. A criminal case has been opened in the Komi Republic, according to sources in the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB). Kasparov, 61, world chess champion from 1985 to 2000, fled Russia in 2013 and currently lives in New York. He co-founded the FRF together with activist Ivan Tyutrin in 2016. The Forum presents itself as an intellectual alternative to the current political regime in Russia. Earlier this year Kasparov was added by Moscow to a list of “terrorists and extremists”.
