When I caught up with Kasparov, he was very concerned about a series of arrests of leading opposition figures last week by Moscow’s investigative police. Among those carted away were Alexei Navalny, a blogger and lawyer who has emerged as a leading voice against corruption in the Russian government.

“They are now turning the witnesses into suspects,” Kasparov said in an interview with The Daily Beast, his voice rising a bit in disbelief and anger. The arrests were in connection to clashes between the police and protesters that occurred on the May 6 election when at least 20,000 people turned out in Moscow to protest Vladimir Putin’s inauguration as president the next day. The Russian police claim that 20 of their officers were injured in the clashes that day. Kasparov, however, said provocateurs had started the clashes and that videos showed dozens of peaceful protesters receiving unprovoked beatings from the police.

At this moment, when a unified opposition was taking to the streets, Kasparov said he expected more from the Obama administration. He was particularly furious at Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who told CNN on May 8 that the protests expressed the hope that as “the new term that President Putin is about to begin, Russia will be able to continue democratizing, protecting, and respecting the rights of all Russian citizens, ensuring that there is a level playing field for political and economic participation.”

“It’s horrendous. It’s despicable,” Kasparov said of Clinton’s comments on Putin’s inauguration. “When people are facing criminal charges and the regime is about to start massive repression, this is encouragement for Putin to do whatever he wants.”

Clinton has changed her tune on Russia in recent days. This week she accused Russia of sending armed helicopters to Syria to assist in President Bashar al Assad’s military campaign against his opposition. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, a few days later declined when asked to repeat those charges after Russian officials denied the shipments.

Kasparov said the Obama administration’s hope to work with Russia to bring an end to the fighting and the beginning of a negotiation between the opposition and the Assad regime was naive. “They will be defending Assad to the bitter end,” he said. “It is psychological, they cannot see another brother in the dictatorship brotherhood going down, especially as a result of armed resistance.”

Since 2005 Kasparov has been an important leader for the coalition of groups opposing Putin and his party, United Russia. He attempted to run for the presidency in 2008, but was barred from the ballot.

When asked about his political plans in Russia, Kasparov said he was better suited to play the role of coalition builder and not opposition politician. “I am still trying to play the role of the unifier, bringing together the factions,” he said. “I am ready to play a role in the transition, but I don’t see myself as a long-term Russian politician. I believe I can play a more important role on the global scale. I don’t want to limit myself for the rest of my life playing politics in Russia.”

Kasparov said he wants to play a role in ridding Russia of Putin’s rule. But he is also a realist. “What we know about these regimes is that they can collapse overnight,” he said. “But again, with Putin’s resources and determination to stay in power, we may be facing harsh times ahead of us.”

One project that may consume more of Kasparov’s time in the near future is his campaign to unseat the current ruler of the World Chess Federation, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Ilyumzhinov, a former governor of the Russian province of Kalmikya, has been atop the federation since 1995. He has also attracted attention by saying at one point that he was abducted by space aliens.

In 2011 he was one of the last major figures to visit Muammar Gaddafi as he was fighting a rebellion supported by NATO.

“I will probably run if I have to,” Kasparov said. In 2010 Kasparov supported the candidacy of Anatoly Karpov, the world champion from 1975 to 1985 when he lost the title to a young Kasparov. Kasparov said the bottom line was that Ilyumzhinov “must go.”

For Kasparov, he sees similarities between Ilyumzhinov and Putin. “I think they are both doomed historically. It’s just a matter of time,” he said. “Chess is a very minor thing compared to Russia and the damage Putin can impose on my country and the rest of the world. I can say unseating Ilyumzhinov is very doable. Putin will be harder.”

Read the full article here at the Daily Beast.

Further reading from the Daily Beast: Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is Russia’s Great Red Hope

“We are asking Americans and Europeans not to send observers,” Kasparov said in an exclusive interview. “You understand Putin will get whatever he wants. What is the point of pretending this is an election? It’s a charade. Don’t interfere with it, just don’t pay respect to the charade.”

The opposition leader had similar words about the reset itself:

Kasparov, a former world chess champion, was critical of both presidents and blunt about the reset. “It’s a disaster,” he said. “From day one they bet on Medvedev as a counterweight to Putin. The whole idea of reset was founded on the false assumption Medvedev was an independent politician. He is not.”

Later in the interview, Kasparov acknowledged that his views on Obama’s Russia policy has not won him any friends at the State Department. “They have no interest in hearing my very specific views,” he said. Kasparov spoke Tuesday at the conservative Heritage Foundation for a conference critical of the reset with Russia.

…

Kasparov did not limit his criticism of U.S.-Russia policy to Obama. He said the Bush administration had failed to account for Putin as well. “This is not a problem of this administration. To a certain degree they inherited it from the Bush administration,” he said.

Kasparov said Bush largely ignored Putin’s consolidation of power during his term because the Russian had promised considerable counterterrorism cooperation after the Sept. 11 attacks. Bush and his first national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, were naïve in “betting on this so-called liberal wing in the Kremlin and expecting Putin to walk away quietly,” he said.

A new memoir out by Condoleezza Rice indicates that the Bush administration at least realized that the Putin they thought they knew was not the Putin they found at the end of his term:

Kasparov said he largely agreed with Rice’s take. “That is the right assessment,” he said. “But the mistake was made in the first meeting. Putin was looking around and testing the water and he quickly discovered the West was weak.”

Kasparov said Putin is a master of psychologically exploiting Western leaders in order to get the freedom of action he desires in his own sphere of influence, the Soviet Union’s former republics and satellites.

“Since Hitler there was no leader as successful at playing the psychological games with leaders in the Western world,” Kasparov said. “The difference is Hitler used tanks. Putin is using banks.” Kasparov later clarified that he was not accusing Putin of launching a genocide against an ethnic minority and that his analogy only applied to how two authoritarian leaders played Western leaders off each other.

Read the full interview at the Daily Beast.

The interview is also available in Russian here.