Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov may be charged by Russian authorities for violating the Kremlin’s “foreign agent” law, TASS news agency reported on Sunday.
There is “every reason” to prosecute Kasparov, Russian law enforcement officials told the state news outlet, without providing further details. They added that the U.S.-based Kremlin critic could face up to two years in prison.
Kasparov was “arrested in absentia” in April, along with an environmental activist, a former member of the Russian Duma, and the co-founder of an anti-Kremlin NGO, according to TASS. The four were accused of “heading a terrorist society, funding terrorist activity and justifying it publicly,” it said.
The foreign agent law forces anyone identified as having foreign support or influence to register with the justice ministry and declare themselves foreign agents, subject to hefty bureaucracy and state surveillance.
The chess grandmaster has been on that list since May 2022, after he co-founded the Anti-War Committee of Russia. An organization of political exiles, the committee calls on “true Russian patriots” to “fight against the aggressive dictatorship of Vladimir Putin” and has demanded Kremlin officials be tried as “war criminals.”
