KASPAROV TO ISRAEL: DON'T TRUST PUTIN

Chess legend Kasparov to 'Post': Double-check Putin!
As Russian President Vladimir Putin spent his first full day here on Thursday, legendary chess champion Garry Kasparov had a message for Israel: Don't trust him!

In a telephone interview with The Jerusalem Post from Russia, Kasparov, who has retired from chess and is now a political rival of the president's, complained that Putin's regime is trampling on democratic principles and poses a serious threat to the rest of the world. He also said that Putin's reliance on support from ultranationalist forces could spell trouble for Russia's Jews, and he skewered Putin for strategic shortcomings that, he said, could imperil Israel.

Russian sales of missiles to Syria and nuclear technology to Iran, for example, were misguided steps that should worry not only Israel, Kasparov said. Actually, he continued, they were proof that Putin and his regime "just want a short-term profit" and that they "don't think strategically, they can't think long-term."

The Russian president had undermined democratic reforms installed by his predecessors, Kasparov added, citing strict controls on independent media and suggestions that Putin might force an alteration to the constitution that would allow him to remain in office for a third term.

Kasparov also claimed that Putin was not only doing too little to combat the rising ant-Semitism in Russia, but charged that the former KGB officer's government even encouraged and instigated ultranationalist sentiment, with the security apparatus propping up far-right groups.