Saturday, December 1, 2007

Arrestniks

Time for a second human-rights post: A13 by Garry Kasparov, former world chess champion.

Kasparov was jailed in Russia this past week for "disobeying the orders of a police officer" at a Moscow rally. You guessed it--he is a PIG (politically incorrect guy/Garry). As is typical in Russia:
  • His charge was added after the fact by a Moscow district court.
  • The KGB was after him--"we could all hear "make sure you get Kasparov" on their walkie-talkies."
  • He and his cohorts enjoyed no right to his lawyer, nor true justice--rather "telephone justice" (mishearing the judge, eh?). The trial was a brilliant one-side play.
  • He had to "receive food packages from home" rather than eat jail food--and this was only in response to "growing external pressure."
  • Even his release "was handled illegally. Instead of letting me out...into the crowd of media and supporters...I was secretly taken to the police station...a colonel's automobile all the way to my home."
  • And, of course, his cell was only 120 square feet--maybe the size of my bedroom, but not large enough for normal life.
Staged elections. Staged trials. No wonder Tchaikovsky is so popular. Sorry. Must not put good music and bad country in same sentence ever again.

3 comments:

Aurora said...

Hannah, Kasparov is determined and is plotting his strategy against the beast. Unfortunately Putin has a huge support network, amazingly. Can't they see what this person is all about? Let's hope Kasparov is smart enough to figure out a way to kick Putin's butt. Of course, after the incident with Litvinenko in the U.K. (Putin's doing), we all know how Putin deals with his enemies. I hope Kasparov is watching his back!

MathewK said...

He better Aurora, Putin has all the decks stacked sky-high in his favor.

Aurora said...

Actually I think Kasparov is just ticked off enough and just crazy enough to do what he plans to do regardless. Surely Putin can only kill off so many public figures before he has open revolt.