Photo: EPA/FILIP SINGER
Russian chess grandmaster and anti-war activist Garry Kasparov was added to a list of “terrorists and extremists” compiled by Russia’s financial monitoring service on Wednesday.
Garry Kasparov, who left Russia in 2013 fearing prosecution for his role in the 2011-2012 protests demanding fair elections, has long been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He was branded a “foreign agent” in May for his political activity.
Kasparov’s name on the list is marked with an asterisk, which means that a criminal case has been opened against him on terrorism charges, Meduza wrote.
Alongside several other prominent Russian political figures in exile, Kasparov set up the Anti-War Committee of Russia in February 2022, which was deemed an “undesirable organisation” by the Russian government late last year.
The Free Russia Forum, a biannual conference of the Russian opposition co-founded by Kasparov, was also added to the list of “undesirable organisations” last year.
Kasparov, who was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in what was then the Soviet Union, became the youngest world chess champion at the age of 22 in 1985. He was ranked the number one chess player in the world for a record 255 months from 1984 until his retirement in 2005.
