Garry Kasparov on the upcoming Russian elections

In such a war, in such a monstrous civilizational conflict, where the forces of freedom stand on one side and obscurantism and tyranny on the other, it is simply impossible to seek a middle ground. It is a war that has only two possible outcomes—either Putin’s victory or his defeat. Any attempt to find a variant in between makes one an ally of evil.

The same applies to the attempts by a significant part of the Russian emigration to devise how to “correctly” vote in the so-called Russian elections. The answer is very simple: you don’t. There is no correct way, because any voluntary participation in an electoral process organized by an illegitimate fascist power constitutes assistance to that power and a form of its legitimization.

It is hard to believe that in the fifth year of the war, people who continue to call on Russians to sign up as Kremlin extras do not understand this. They know very well that they have no influence over what happens in Russia. However, the need to constantly prove their own significance to Western donors forces them to continue this absurd imitation. Hence all those attempts to pull “Smart Voting,” “Noon Against Putin,” the spoiling of ballots, and other long-bankrupt technologies out of the chest again.

I am asked: and what are you doing? We are doing only what is in our power. But we, unlike those who pretend to be active within the Kremlin’s scenario, are fighting against the regime, not participating in its productions. We clearly understand that our place is in the ranks of the free world, which is at war with Putin’s Russia—a cancerous tumor threatening all of modern civilization. This regime must be destroyed, and therefore the task of the Russian opposition today is not to find the right way to participate in Putin’s performance, but to help Ukraine win by all available means.

Garry Kasparov