Exiled chess champion Garry Kasparov placed under arrest in absentia in Russia

The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow has ordered the arrest in absentia of former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who has been designated a “foreign agent” by Russia’s Ministry of Justice.

The ruling was issued under Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Russian Criminal Code, which covers public calls for terrorism, public justification of terrorism, or its propaganda, according to Russian media.

Investigators submitted the request for Kasparov’s arrest on December 22, and court records show that the motion was approved the same day. The decision is scheduled to enter into legal force on December 26. The maximum penalty under this article is up to seven years in prison.

Kasparov is a Soviet and Russian chess player, the 13th World Chess Champion, an Honoured Master of Sports of the USSR, and an eight-time winner of World Chess Olympiads. He announced his retirement from professional chess in 2005. Seven years later, he was elected to the Coordination Council of the Russian opposition, after which he stated that he had left Russia and would continue his political activities from abroad.

Following the start of Russia’s military operations in Ukraine in February 2022, Kasparov became one of the organisers of the Free Russia Forum and the Russian Action Committee. He is also a member of the Anti-War Committee of Russia, which has been designated an undesirable organisation by the Prosecutor General’s Office. In 2024, Kasparov was added to Rosfinmonitoring’s list of extremists and terrorists.

In October, Russia’s Federal Security Service reported that criminal cases had been opened against Kasparov and other members of the committee, including one of its founders, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who is also listed as a foreign agent. Those cases involve charges related to the violent seizure of power, the organisation of a terrorist community, and participation in such a community, under Articles 278, Part 1 of Article 205.4, and Part 2 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code.

Kasparov has previously been arrested in absentia in Russia. In 2024, a court in the Komi Republic issued a similar ruling against the former world chess champion.

By Tamilla Hasanova