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Garry Kasparov has been living in exile for years
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Sven Hoppe/dpa
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov is one of the Russian celebrities who sharply criticize Vladimir Putin.
In his homeland, Kasparov has now been placed on the list of “terrorists and extremists” by the financial regulator.
Russian authorities had previously defined Kasparov as a “foreign agent.”
Russia's judiciary brands both individuals and organizations with the widely criticized label of "foreign agent."
Many then fight for their existence because, for example, supporters, business partners and income disappear.
Since the beginning of the war of aggression against Ukraine, the repression against opposition members and critical figures in Russia has increased.
The organization Forum Free Russia, co-founded by Kasparov, was also declared an “undesirable organization” in February 2023, which effectively means a ban on activity in Russia.
According to a Russian law from 2015, "undesirable organizations" must cease their activities in Russia, accounts and possible property will be blocked, and their representative offices will be closed, as the Center for Eastern European and International Studies (ZOiS) explains.
Russian citizens risk criminal prosecution if they contact these organizations.
The Russian Ministry of Justice's register currently includes almost 150 organizations from Germany, the USA and other countries.
The pressure on Russian civil society and its foreign contacts has increased even more since the beginning of the war.
Kasparov, who was born in 1963 in Baku, the capital of the then Azerbaijani Soviet Republic, retired from chess in 2005 as world number one.
In 2014 he took Croatian citizenship.
Since the end of his career he has devoted himself to working in the Russian opposition, initially in Russia and later from exile.
Kasparov has been chairman of the International Council of the Human Rights Foundation since 2012 and lives with his family in New York.
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