Garry Kasparov On Democracy

Chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov who left the Russia n 2013 due to his opposition to Vladimir Putin and later founded the Renew Democracy Initiative, sees striking similarities between the rise of Putin in Russia and Trump in the United States. Not in personalities as they are clearly different but in their determination to change their respective countries from democracies to oligarchies. 

"Look, it's - as you said, is America is a democracy, but democracy is not an insurance. Democracy, the way I see it, is more like an instrument that helps you to protect the constitutional order. Back to Russia, Putin's Russia, and, of course, Russian democracy was very feeble. It's no comparison to American institutions that are nearly 250 years old, I can recognize. You destroy the state control powers and you start privatizing them. Some people have power because of the proximity to power. That's a real danger. That's oligarchy. So that's why the Trump-Musk regime is trying to form a classical oligarchy where people who control wealth directly make decisions that concern millions and millions of American citizens, circumventing the other elected bodies."