My response to Bernie Sanders' you know uh stories you know fairytales is that uh the failure of capitalism is still much better than the success of … - Garry Kasparov

Everyone who told me a decade ago I was wrong, now is telling I'm right. Unfortunately. But we're still repeating the same mistakes of thinking that we can muddle through without taking risks, without taking a stand. The price of stopping a dictator always goes up with every delay, every hesitation. Meeting evil halfway, it's still a victory for evil.

I retired from professional chess to form a pro-democracy, anti-Putin movement in Russia. As you could see, it didn't go so well. But it was not about winning or losing. I knew it was my moral duty in keeping with the slogan of Soviet dissidents: "Do what you must and so be it." Ah, my friends and critics both kept telling me, "Gary, you are a chess player, you're not a politician. This is not chess. You see everything in black and white. Politics are gray. You have to compromise." Really? Those who peacefully marched with me for free Russia are either in exile, like me. Or in jail, like Alexei Navalny. Or even murdered like Boris Nemtsov. Compromise? Not black and white? Are you sure? Compromise with this?

Communism is like an autoimmune disorder; it doesn't do the killing itself, but it weakens the system so much that the victim is left helpless and unable to fight off anything else.