✨Winter Is Coming

The ascension of Vladimir Putin--a former lieutenant colonel of the KGB--to thepresidency of Russia in 1999 should have been a signal that the country was headedaway from democracy. Yet in the intervening years--as America and the world's otherleading powers have continued to appease him--Putin has grown not only into a dictatorbut a global threat. With his vast resources and nuclear weapons, Putin is at the centre ofa worldwide assault on political liberty. For Garry Kasparov, none of this is news. He has been a vocal critic of Putin for over adecade, even leading the pro-democracy opposition to him in the farcical 2008Presidential election. Yet years of seeing his Cassandra-like prophecies about Putin'sintentions fulfilled have left Kasparov with the realization of a darker truth: Putin'sRussia, like ISIS or Al Qaeda, defines itself in opposition to the free countries of theworld. He is still fighting the Cold War, even as Americans have first moved beyond it,and over time, forgotten its lessons.Lest we be drawn into another prolonged conflict, Kasparov now urges a forceful stand--diplomatic and economic--against him.For as long as the world's powerful democraciescontinue to recognize and negotiate with Putin, he can maintain credibility in his homecountry.