No Appeasement: Garry Kasparov's "Winter Is Coming" 2015
Last edited Sat Apr 8, 2017, 10:36 AM - Edit history (1)
This former world chess champion offers us what I am convinced is the progressive Russian view of events over the last twenty years:
1. the oligarchic capture of Russia's government during its democratic years under Yeltsin,
2. Putin's world view and governing practices inside Russia,
3. Putin's malevolent treatment of his neighbors and the West,
4. why Western leaders' dealings with Putin are misguided,
5. how much Russians hate Putin.
6. why every single country must listen to its dissidents.
Kasparov's book is a warning, not a prediction. He deeply respects the West's efforts to defeat the enemies of freedom during the Cold War, even as he shows irreverent wit and amusing turns of phrase.
He reminds us that the internal fights for freedom in Russia and former Iron Curtain countries continue. With his chronology of Putin's mafia use of his police state and murderous military incursions of his neighbors, Kasparov reminds us that we must not forget others who seek to be as free as we in the West. Recent Moscow protests show us how much Russians want the West to see the 'Putin problem.'
The best sections of this excellent read are Kasparov's intro and concluding solutions for how the West can successfully rid the world of dictators. It won't be through the globalization of capital, but the globalization of a Modern Magna Carta.
Kasparov offers new ideas for dealing with those he calls "time travelers," what he calls groups or nations stuck in the historical times they desperately, violently try to preserve for all time -- whether they are ISIS, Kim Jong-Un, Boko Haram, drug producers, oligarchic dictators -- that they fight against the globalization of modernity, even as they use its technology as tools of their fight.
This book should be required reading for everyone in the West, not just Americans.
= new reply since forum marked as read
