LatestChess - Interviews - Interview with Vladimir Kramnik

Weekly Euro:- I would like to move from chess to politics. What do you think about the proclamations of Garry Kasparov, do you see the Russian political reality in a similar light?
Vladimir Kramnik:- I disagree with him. It seems to me that his political opinions are empty. Garry is too destructive for my liking. According to him, everything in Russia is wrong, Putin did everything wrong . But that is simply not true. I am convinced that if Kasparov wants to be in politics he needs to offer something positive too, something constructive. Even in the field of human rights protection in Russia there are a number of people doing a lot. Apart from criticising, they create something positive too, by helping some people. Garry’s approach to everything is just demagogic and destructive. I disagree with his opinion that the situation in Russia is as critical as he sees it. I go there often, my brother and my parents live there, so I think I have a pretty good insight. If you want to judge the current situation in Russia you must not take single aspects of it out of the general picture. It is the same as judging a position during a chess game - you need to bear in mind an entire chessboard.

Garry is too destructive for my liking

Of course Russia is not a democracy on the same level as countries such as Germany or France, but you cannot judge today’s situation without taking in the historical context. Russia had never been a democratic country in the past, so that is why the transition is not easy. Nevertheless, nowadays eighty percent of the Russian population is not forced to fight for their existence, as they had to, some ten, fifteen years ago.

nowadays eighty percent of the Russian population is not forced to fight for their existence

Weekly Euro:- Eighty percent of people had difficulties to obtain food?
Vladimir Kramnik:- I don’t know exactly whether it was eighty, ninety or seventy, but an absolute majority of people was struggling to survive. The majority of people had to live with a maximum of fifty dollars a month, lots of them were starving as a result, lots of people were not able to obtain basic health care, they did not have enough money for medication, they were dying because of it.

Weekly Euro:- Did you personally know somebody, who had to struggle to survive in the nineties?
Vladimir Kramnik:- Sure I did. For instance in my home town Tuapse, people were extremely poor. Even my own parents would not have been able to survive without my financial help. My father received pension of 50 dollars, and my mother a salary worth of 70 dollars. If I did not send money to them they would have had to live on bread and water. I value Jelzin’s courage to change the system completely and to adopt democracy. Unfortunately the society was not ready for it. Many people interpreted the changes as anarchy, where everything was allowed. Not only did poverty increase dramatically, but so did criminality - a number of murdered people a day in Moscow, that was the norm.

I value Jelzin’s courage to change the system completely and to adopt democracy

Weekly Euro:- Do you think then that the situation in Russia in nineties was worse then during seventies or eighties?
Vladimir Kramnik:- Much worse. In seventies you couldn’t choose in shops exactly what you wanted, but everyone had enough money to obtain at least the basic needs. There was one kind of bread, two kinds of cheese, one kind of yogurt and two kinds of salami . But you had enough money to buy it. In the nineties, there were many varieties of everything available, but the vast majority of people could only afford bread and potatoes. If I have to choose between a totally open society, where most of the citizens live in total poverty, and the current system, which perhaps is not so open, but people are simply not dying like animals, then I prefer Putin’s Russia to the one of Jelzin.

Weekly Euro:- And today?
Vladimir Kramnik:- Nowadays most of the people in Russia are better off than ever before. May be for the first time in several centuries the majority of the population in Russia lives as normal human beings, and they’re not afraid that they won’t have anything to give to their kids for supper. All sociological opinion polls agree that the Russian people see their situation more positively then before. I would not call the situation all rosy, but neither do I like the black and white division. I claim that in last ten years the situation in Russia has changed for the better, and that in general it is heading in the right direction.

We can name a number of problems, for instance that Russia lacks an independent television station, but it does not mean that there is the need to destroy everything. I believe that it is better to stay positive, to look for what can be made better, rather then destroying things. I understand that there are still problems in Russia, for instance corruption and a certain violation of human rights. This has to be solved. But for me the most important thing is the life quality of ordinary people. Politics and politicians are not a priority to me. Instead of getting involved with their party arguments, questions concerning elections of governors or questions of presidential authority, the most important one is the everyday life of Russians and how the lives of ordinary people are developing. And ninety percent people have been better off for the last few years, which proves to me that things are not as bad as Garry presents them.

life quality of ordinary people is the most important

Weekly Euro:- Is the improvement in the socio-economical situation the reason behind why so many people vote Putin?
Vladimir Kramin:- Of course, this is the key to understanding the political situation in Russia. Western people don’t understand, they talk about democracy and about the competition of political parties. The fact is that the people in Russia support the President and the government. If the average income of USA households grew by three times in two years, believe me, a vast majority of Americans would wish Bush stays in office. So to me it is not a matter of democracy, it is a matter of how well you do your job as a President.

people in Russia support the President and the government

Weekly Euro:- People abroad perceive Putin’s Russia with suspicion. Do you feel it as a Russian living in Paris (and previously in Germany)?
Vladimir Kramnik:- In general it can be said that people are afraid of a powerful Russia. I am convinced that it is an irrational fear, that Russia is no threat to anybody. I can guarantee you that Russians just want to lead a good quality life, and not to attack anybody. I am convinced that just as Germans have never tried to overrun the world after World War Two, Russians too do not want to rule the world any more. In the last twenty years Russia has never attacked another country, it has not been aggressive in international politics, there were no Russians planes and Russians soldiers bombarding another country, contrary to some other "democratic states"...

there were no Russians planes, soldiers bombarding another country, like some other "democratic states"...

On the other hand, why shouldn’t Russia be one of the most powerful countries? It has huge mineral resources as well as intellectual capacity. I don’t wish Russia to rule the world, because I don’t want that any one country should dominate all others. The best thing would be if the power was balanced among a few strong players. And if one of them is Russia, that would not be bad for the world, in my opinion

We are thankful to Pavel Matocha for this interview.

Pavel Matocha (Prague) is a senior reporter and cofounder of the magazine "Weekly Euro" and organizer of several important chess events. Pavel is the chairman of the Prague Chess Society - www.praguechess.cz, an association founded in 2004 aiming to aid developing chess life and chess culture in the Czech Republic. They have published several chess books (two volumes of Fire on Board by Alexeje Shirov and Ten Extraordinary Games by Boris Gelfand). Since 2007 they have been publishing Chess Weekly, which is distributed into e-mail boxes free of charge.
Prague Chess Society support sightless chess players, not only financially, but they also had organized simul of Grandmaster Navara for visually handicapped chess players.