To checkmate Iran, make Russia pay the price
Chess master and Putin critic Gary Kasparov was in Tel Aviv on Monday, and in words that remind me of my friend Michael Fenebock's calls to 'make Obama hurt' electorally, Kasparov says that the United States has to make Putin hurt if it wants to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion who has become one of the most outspoken critics of Vladimir Putin, said Monday that the only way to block Iran’s path to nuclear weapons was to tackle the Russian prime minister’s ongoing dealings with the mullahs’ regime in general and their nuclear program in particular.The line about Goldman Sachs is a classic as well.
And the only way to do that, said Kasparov, was for the Obama administration to make plain to Putin that unless he changed course, there would be “real consequences for his [financial] well-being.”
“Without Russia’s technical assistance, Iran wouldn’t be even close to a nuclear bomb,” said Kasparov, who in late 2007 made a short-lived bid to challenge for the Russian presidency and who has been arrested and briefly jailed in recent years after anti-Putin protests. The way to force Russia to abandon that assistance, he said, “is to make Putin listen… by going after his money.”
...
“Iran will not stop [its pursuit of nuclear weapons] unless Russia is ready to join the sanctions,” said Kasparov, “because apart from the nuclear technology and the anti-missile defense systems, Russia is a main energy supplier.”
That won’t change, he said, unless or until Putin is pressured effectively.
“He’s not going to listen to your requests or your pleading, or [respond] to some kind of sweet deal,” said Kasparov witheringly. “At the end of the day, selling nuclear technology to Iran, selling anti-missile defense systems, brings cash. And if America or Israel, or both, at a certain point attack Iran, the oil price goes up, so for Putin it’s a win-win situation.”
Unfortunately, said Kasparov, “it seems the [US] administration is ready to attack Goldman Sachs, but it is not ready to attack Putin’s financial interests. Which means that Iran feels safe.”
Read the whole thing.
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:54 PM
3 Comments:
"Unfortunately, said Kasparov, “it seems the [US] administration is ready to attack Goldman Sachs, but it is not ready to attack Putin’s financial interests."
Classic indeed. Not a hundred percent honest for sure. Let's see, who was the trusted friend of Putin?
Russia just another country successive administrations have pandered too.
And no Mr. Kasparov, Russia will never sanction Iran because "over the years" Russia helped build the nuclear genie which points right at your cheeseboard.
Seriously, short of the stand up comedy stick and chess expertise, Kasparov's head is in the clouds.
The Russians are paying the US its Cold War resentments back in spades and have no reason to make Obama look good at home. And the arms control treaty is not going to pass the US Senate.
With America's the world's deadbeat, it has hardly has leverage over any one. What a pitiful hegemon.
I'm afraid Kasparov has been enthusiastic about Obama. So he's a typical European--read, clueless in a leftish sort of way about American politics. Which is a dangerous thing to be, these days.
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