Here’s a fascinating Youtube video clip of former chess champion come Presidential hopeful Garry Kasparov being interview by Bill Maher, a US political satirist.
Kasparov panders to the crowd a bit (it’s a satire show, after all, so fair play to him), but there’s some interesting stuff in there - notably his explanation of why Putin is so friendly with Iran at the moment. Common sense, but it needs to be explained from time to time.
My favourite moment though is Maher’s question about whether the ‘Russian soul’ means that Russians just want a strong leader. Kasparov’s rebuttal is a gem.
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
Kasparo’s comments are facile, particularly that of why Putin keeps relations with Iran. So, Kasparov can play a crowd and tell them what to hear. That’s the sign of a showman. It says nothing of his own credibility or how he would actually fare if he was President. The guy’s a schmock.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:37 pm
Another example of the kind of Russian views the American elitny tend to prefer.
It reminds me of this recent piece:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2007/10/01/071001fa_fact_remnick
A parallel reminder of how the USSR used to prop Angela Davis and Gus Hall.