Former World Chess Champion Kasparov Calls Putin's War Crimes Beyond Imagination, Returns Russia To The Stone Age

Garry Kasparov. (Wikimedia Commons/Mykola Swarnyk)

JAKARTA - Russian human rights activist and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov has urged world powers to adopt tougher military and economic strategies against Russian President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine on Thursday.

In an interview with Reuters, Kasparov called on Western countries to withdraw their ambassadors from Moscow, remove Russia from global police agency Interpol, impose a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

"Russia must be thrown back into the Stone Age, to ensure the oil and gas industry and other sensitive industries that are essential to the survival of the regime, cannot function without the support of Western technology," Kasparov said.

The sanctions imposed so far by the United States and other NATO countries have isolated Russia to unprecedented levels for an economy of such size.

Kasparov, the former chairman of the New York-based Foundation for Human Rights and who played an active role in the anti-Kremlin opposition protest movement when he lived in Moscow, told Reuters there would be no peace in the region until President Putin was removed from power.

"The list of what Putin 'will never do' has been growing for so long. He has committed war crimes beyond imagination," he said.

However, Kasparov also took aim at US President Joe Biden for not taking more aggressive action against Putin earlier.

"I hope the Americans will revise their strategy and will show strength."

Russia and Ukraine have agreed on the need to establish humanitarian corridors and a possible ceasefire around them for Ukrainian civilians fleeing war, negotiators said after talks on Thursday. The first round of talks held in Belarus on Monday did not yield any progress.

To note, hundreds of Russian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russian troops crossed the border on February 24. And, more than 1 million refugees have fled the invasion-affected areas, according to the United Nations.