Russia’s financial monitoring agency has added ex-world chess champion Garry Kasparov to its list of “terrorists and extremists.”
The listing, by Rosfinmonitoring, restricts client bank transactions, requiring users to get approval every time they access their accounts.
Kasparov took to X to express his amusement, calling the citation an “honor that says more about Putin’s fascist regime than about me.
“Today would be a good day to add Russia, Putin and all his cronies to the state sponsors of terror list,” he added, referring to a U.S. list of countries found to have “repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism.”
After ending his chess career in 2005, Kasparov became active in the Russian opposition, but left the country in 2013 to avoid persecution.
He is now one of the most outspoken opponents of Putin’s regime in exile.
In 2015, Kasparov published a book prophetically titled “Winter is Coming,” arguing that Putin and other “enemies of the free world” must be stopped.
After Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, the chess player and other public figures founded the Anti-War Committee, calling on the international community to declare Russian leaders “war criminals.”
In May of that year, Russia’s justice ministry included Kasparov to a list of “foreign agents,” largely Kremlin critics who are closely monitored by Russian authorities.
Kasparov’s media office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
