Garry Kasparov (President Welles)

Garry Kimovich Kasparov (born April 13, 1963) is a Soviet World Chess Champion, and political activist.

From the late-1990s, Kasparov began to actively critize the Soviet regime, and often directly Secretary General Vladimir Putin. He wrote anti-Communist and anti-Putin propaganda in illegal newspapers and websites, and also made his opinion heard public.

In 2003, the police arrested Kasparov for revolting against the state, and after two months in prison, put him under house arrest. However, Kasparov escaped and flee to the West, finally arriving to the United States, where he asked for asylum. The Soviet government urgingly ordered the US administration to handle him over, however President Lamar Alexander refused it. The Kasparov affair created a high-risk crisis in diplomacy: if the US government gives Kasparov back to the USSR, they might seem to be cowards and too much "Soviet-friendly", while ignoring their claims, they might risk an open conflict between the two powers. Fortunately, apart from diplomatic breakdowns, the events had no serious consequences.

Kasparov is currently living in Palo Alto, California.