LOS ANGELES.–Showing that former chess champion Gary Kasparov, 61, has no clue about American democracy, he warned about Tesla, SpaceX and X CEO Elon Musk, currently worth over $330 billion, becoming the first American oligarch, comparing the situation to what happened to Russia during détente and perestroika. Kasparov head the New York-based Renew Democracy Initiative that endorsed 60-year-old Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election. Kasparov became World Chess Champion Nov. 9, 1985 at age 22, spending his time at self-promotion, before retiring from professional chess March 10, 2005 after winning the Linares Chess tournament in Andalusia, Spain. Kasparov became a big critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin starting in 2000, eventually seeking exile in the U.S. in 2013. Kasparov sees himself as a refusenik, before emigrating.
Kasparov said he watched perestroika and glasnost fail in Russia because of Putin’s return to Stalinist type rule in Russia. He watched first hand while Russia’s richest oligarch, Yukos oil founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, arrested Oct. 25, 2003, thrown in jail, charged with treason and tax evasion and jailed in Siberia. Putin showed mercy on Khodorkovsky Dec. 20, 2013, commuting his sentence, then exiling him permanently from Russia. Khodorkovsky learned his lesson not to mess with Putin, unlike Russian dissident Alexi Navalny who returned to Russia after recovering from Novichok poisoning in Germany, only get arrested, charged and sentenced to a long prison sentence. Navalny died in an Arctic Circle penal colony Feb. 16. 2014, confirming what Kasparov knows that Putin runs a Stalinist ship. Kasparov sees the same thing happening with Trump in the U.S.
Kasparov can’t figure out that in a democracy like America, the Constitution and rule of law supersede the arbitrariness of dictatorship like exist in Russia. Kasparov was all in for 60-year-old Vice President Kamala, joining the chorus of voice calling Trump as fascist and dictator. What Kasparvo doesn’t get is that in the U.S. corporations have the most of the power not the government. Trump won election in a landslide Nov. 5 not because he’d weaken democrat institutions but because he’d strengthen them. Kasparov didn’t see how Trump had been prosecuted by the U.S. government for a variety of fake crimes, all of which were disputed by Trump’s attorneys. Unlike Russia where the courts and judges are controlled by Putin, the same thing doesn’t happen the same way in the U.S. Trump was convicted in Manhattan but the 34 felonies are close to getting overturned on appeal.
No appeal happens in Russia without Putin’s approval, something that doesn’t work that way in the United States. President Joe Biden, 82, would have liked to see Trump convicted on multiple felonies but Trump was entitled to his day in court. Trump would not have escaped Putin’s control in Russia over the criminal justice system. Kasparov sees Musk as the first U.S. oligarch but how does Musk differ from Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet or any other multibillionaire in the U.S.? Putin can’t throw Musk in jail or threaten to confiscate his fortune if they have a future falling out. Kasparov sees American democracy differently from his Soviet-or-post-Soviet lens. Podcaster Joe Rogan, 57, said Democrats and the press engaged in psyops to paint Trump as a dictator in the public’s mind. Kamala actually told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Trump was a “fascist.”
Kasparov sees Musk as the threat to democracy by holding a dual role contracting with the government while Trump has him and Vivek Ramaswamy heading up an unofficial government efficiency commission. “Musk could be the first oligarch,” Kasparov said. “Having the largest private contractor of the U.S. government potentially being in the position of supervising the entire U.S. budget? I mean, just think about it. If this is not classical oligarcy, what is it?” asked Kasparvov. Kasparov doesn’t get that Trump isn’t the nation’s dictator, he’s the head of the executive branch that must answer to the House, Senate and Supreme Court. Oligarchy involves supreme riches in a totalitarian society where monopolies are doled out to certain private businessmen. Look what happened to Khodorkovsky if you want to know what happens to Russian oligarchs.
Kasparov thinks that oligarchy is about crossing the line between government and business, something Musk does because the space program is partly subsidized by the U.S. government. “Oligarchy is not about the amount of money,” Kasparov said. “Oligarchy is about blurring the line, erasing the line, between business and government,” pointimg his finger at Elon Musk. But there are many industries, including the oil industry or agriculture, that receives subsidies from the government, but that isn’t the meaning of oligarchy. Oligarchy is a monopoly handed to private individuals by a dictator like Putin, then, on a whim, can take it all away if things don’t go as planned. Former Yukos oil founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky knows what it’s like to cross Putin or betray his confidence. Nothing like that exists in the U.S. because of the Constitution and rule of law.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of Onlinecolumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma
