Prague - In the run-up to the summit of the Group of Eight in Germany, Russian opposition politician Garry Kasparov urged world leaders at a Prague conference ending Wednesday to reprimand Russian President Vladimir Putin for steering Russia away from democracy.
'I am sure there are many ways in communicating the right message to Mr Putin,' Kasparov told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
He said that including Russia 'which is not a democracy at all and not even the major industrial power...destroys the whole concept of great industrial democracies discussing the important global issues.'
According to Kasparov, '(US President George W) Bush and other leaders like (French President Nicolas) Sarkozy and (German Chancellor Angela) Merkel could do more in isolating Putin.'
Their message should be that 'you cannot act like (Belarus President Alexander) Lukashenko and be treated as a democratic leader,' Kasparov said.
Kasparov told dpa that in his view, Europe has enough 'bargaining chips' and should not look 'for some excuses to pretend that Russia can control the situation by opening or closing the pipeline.
'The people who pretend that they keep you hostage keep all the money in western banks,' he said. 'They have all assets here. Their kids are studying in western schools. From Riga to London you can find Russian money prominently displayed.'
Kasparov was among some 30 dissidents from around the world who had gathered in Prague for a two-day international conference to debate the question of whether spreading democracy boosts security.
During his Prague visit on Tuesday, Bush criticized Russia in his speech before the conference delegates for derailing democratic reforms.
'At least he accepted that things were going wrong in Russia,' Kasparov said of Bush's one-line statement on Russian democracy.
'It is the first time when he didn't compare Russia today to the Soviet time, which was a favourite excuse of the State Department - saying things are looking better now than in 1985 or 1975,' the former world chess champion said.
Kasparov said he asked Bush in a closed meeting after his speech to make public statements on the state of Russian democracy.
'Receiving Putin in private luxury of the Bush ranch in America offers Putin extra credentials,' he said. 'While doing so, Bush has to do more to counter-act the negative effect.
'Mr Bush made some big statements on democratic values being part of his foreign policy and we expect him to act upon his promises,' he told dpa.
