Arrest warrant against Garry Kasparov. The charges brought by the Russian judiciary against the dissident

A Russian court on Tuesday ordered the arrest in absentia of the chess player and dissident Garry Kasparov, accused of justifying terrorism as a result of his criticism of the war in Ukraine, reports EFE, taken over by Agerpres.

“The court issued a preventive measure against Kasparov, ordering his arrest in absentia for two months from the moment of his detention in Russia or his extradition to Russian territory,” the judge said, quoted by the Russian news agency TASS.

The former world champion was charged with “publicly advocating terrorism on telecommunications networks, including the Internet,” an offense that could earn Kasparov a prison sentence of between five and seven years.

Kasparov, who was included on Russia's foreign agent list in May 2022, has lived outside Russia for more than a decade.

In October, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case for “organization of a terrorist community” and “attempt to seize power” against tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky and other prominent figures of the exiled Russian opposition, founders of the Anti-War Committee in Russia (ARR), including Kasparov.

According to the FSB, Khodorkovsky and the other founders of ARR “finance Ukrainian paramilitary groups designated as terrorist organizations in Russia and recruit people for these groups, later using them in plans to seize power in Russia by force.”

ARR was founded on February 27, 2022, three days after Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine, with the stated goal of combating the “aggressive dictatorship” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been in power for a quarter of a century.