Russian Chess Grand Master Says Putin Is ‘Laughing' at Trump
Russian exile and former chess grand master Garry Kasparov has said that Vladimir Putin is calling the shots on Ukrainian peace talks, and is 'laughing' at President Donald Trump.
Trump, who vowed to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict on day one of his presidency, has publicly demanded that Putin stop his bombing of Ukraine and come to the negotiating table.
Putin kept Trump's U.S. delegation and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky waiting until the last minute before snubbing peace talks in Turkey last week, in a move that read like a power play.
Instead, Putin stayed in Moscow and held a meeting with the head of a Russian bank. Since then, Trump and Putin have had an 'excellent' phone call, according to the U.S. president.
Putin said the call on Monday was 'very meaningful and frank,' but a ceasefire remains elusive. Putin dialed in from a music school in Sochi, a city on the Black Sea, not far from Georgia. Trump was speaking from the Oval Office.
This too was a power play, according to Kasparov. Speaking on CNN's OutFront with Erin Burnett on Monday evening, the former World Chess Champion who fled Russia due to political persecution by Putin's regime, said the Kremlin chief's choice of venue for the call shows his true feelings for Trump.
'Putin is laughing at him. He didn't even come back to Moscow. He spoke to him from a music school in the obscure place in the south of Russia,' he said.
Burnett asked him if this 'matters,' and Kasparov continued: 'Of course! Putin shows disdain. Putin enjoys it. I mean, you can see the body language and also, a dictator has to show his strength.'
He added that this is a 'message to Russians' from the tough guy leader. Kasparov added that it also serves as a message to other dictators around the globe.
'Trump is nobody. I mean, look, you know, 'I can play the American president as a broken guitar,'' he said.
Kasparov added that Putin 'doesn't hear' the strong messaging from Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
'Putin knows that Trump is capable of doing nothing. And this is an American position as presented by JD Vance, that if Putin doesn't want to negotiate, we'll do exactly what he what he wants us to do. America is walking away,' he explained.
He declared that the president of the United States is 'openly taking the side of a brutal dictator that has been carrying genocidal war against its neighbor.'
'And today, Putin is the main threat to the global stability. That should should tell us more about Donald Trump,' he added.
Kasparov even suggested that the two-hour 15-minute call that the leaders had on Monday might have even devolved into a negotiation about trade, rather than a ceasefire. 'I mean, the old nonsense about a ceasefire that just went nowhere could take 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes,' he said.
'What about the rest, 90 minutes? And knowing Trump… he talked about trade, I think, you know, they talked about something else which interests Trump. Trump more [than] anything else, he cares about two things—vanity and greed. So I think Putin knows how to handle it.'
Kasparov claimed that Trump is using his 'immense power' to 'make him rich.'
'So he's not even hiding this intention. And Vladimir Putin is laughing,' he added.
He struck a similar tone on his Substack The Next Move, saying Trump 'looks like a complete idiot' and a 'beaten dog' that has bowed to all of Putin's demands.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Time Magazine
29 minutes ago
- Time Magazine
What to Know About Trump's New Travel Ban
As promised during his campaign, President Donald Trump is reviving his ' famous ' travel ban policy from his first term, citing threats to national security to block out entire nationalities from entering the U.S. Trump issued a proclamation Wednesday that bars the entry of nationals from 12 countries and tightens restrictions on nationals from seven more. The order takes effect on June 9. It provides exceptions, including for lawful permanent residents and specific visa holders as well as for athletes and team members who are traveling for major sporting events. (The U.S. is hosting the FIFA Club World Cup this summer, the FIFA World Cup in 2026, and the 2028 Summer Olympics.) Trump's original travel ban, which he issued just a week after his first-term inauguration in 2017— sowed chaos at arrival points and incited protests across the country. The order was widely referred to as a 'Muslim travel ban' as it initially targeted Muslim-majority countries, barring Syrian refugees from entering and temporarily suspending the entry of nationals from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Over time, the list of countries was revised, while the ban was challenged in court. The Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2018, though Trump's successor President Joe Biden repealed it upon taking office in 2021. The new 'travel ban' comes after a Jan. 20 executive order that directed the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Director of National Intelligence to identify countries with security and public safety risks. Trump said in the proclamation on Wednesday that the new restrictions are necessary 'to prevent the entry or admission of foreign nationals about whom the United States Government lacks sufficient information to assess the risks they pose to the United States.' What countries have new restrictions? The proclamation fully suspends the entry of nationals from Afghanistan, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Nationals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will face limited restrictions, including a ban on entry for immigrants and bans on entry for nonimmigrants with certain classes of visas. In a video posted by the White House on X announcing the proclamation on Wednesday, Trump added that the list can be expanded to include other countries 'as threats emerge around the world.' In March, an internal memo obtained by the New York Times showed that as many as 43 countries could be included in such a ban. Why were these countries on the list? A White House fact sheet about the proclamation lists a justification for each of the 19 countries on the list. Some of the countries have links to terrorism. Afghanistan is controlled by the Sunni Islamist group the Taliban, which took over in 2021 after the exodus of American troops from the country; Iran has links to several militant organizations in the Middle East, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Hamas in Gaza; and Somalia, where the jihadist group al-Shabaab is based, is designated by the U.S. as a 'terrorist safe haven.' Others are deemed to be uncooperative with the U.S. in sharing law enforcement data or accepting back their removable nationals. In the video on X, Trump said the June 1 attack in Boulder, Colo., which left several injured, 'underscored the extreme danger posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas.' The Boulder attacker arrived in the U.S. on a nonimmigrant visa that has since expired. 'Thanks to Biden's open-door policies, today there are millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country,' the President, who has also promised a mass deportation effort, said. 'We don't want them.' Trump touted in the video that his first-term travel restrictions were one of his 'most successful' policies and claimed they played a role in thwarting terror attacks. 'We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm,' Trump said in the video. 'And nothing will stop us from keeping America safe.'
Yahoo
29 minutes ago
- Yahoo
How Trump's travel ban will (and won't) affect World Cup, sports
President Donald Trump's Wednesday proclamation restricting travel to the United States by people from a dozen countries will not apply to athletes competing at soccer's 2026 World Cup or the 2028 Olympics, but could impact fans, friends and extended family of those athletes hoping to come to the U.S. for the hugely popular sporting events. Trump's travel ban, which will take effect Monday, applies to citizens of Iran, whose men's national soccer team has already qualified for the upcoming World Cup, which will be held in the U.S., Canada and Mexico next summer. Advertisement But Section 4, subsection (b), paragraph (iv) of Wednesday's proclamation grants 'exceptions' to 'any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the Secretary of State.' The big unknown, sports immigration experts told Yahoo Sports, is how broad the State Department's definitions of 'major sporting event,' 'necessary support role' and 'immediate relatives' will be. Experts expect that soccer's 2025 Club World Cup — which does not feature a team from one of the 12 countries, but will feature a few players from those countries — will also qualify as a 'major sporting event,' especially given the Trump administration's strong relations with FIFA, soccer's global governing body and the tournament's organizer. It is less clear whether the 2025 Gold Cup, a regional tournament that also begins in the U.S. the same day (June 14), will qualify for the exemption. If it doesn't, the national team of Haiti — another of the 12 countries on Trump's list — would be impacted. It is scheduled to face the U.S., Saudi Arabia and Trinidad and Tobago in Group D. Advertisement Spokespeople for the State Department, FIFA and CONCACAF — the North, Central American and Caribbean soccer confederation in charge of the Gold Cup — either did not immediately respond to questions or could not confirm whether their events were exempted. The wording of the proclamation, experts pointed out, gives the State Department broad discretion to exempt certain events but apply the ban to others, based on any number of criteria or factors. Some athletes looking to travel stateside for minor events — especially pre-professional tournaments or competitions — will likely be affected. And fans will almost certainly be affected, the experts said. FIFA and its president, Gianni Infantino, have repeatedly claimed that 'America will welcome the world — everyone who wants to come here to enjoy [the World Cup], to have fun, to celebrate the game, will be able to do that.' But there are no indications or expectations that fans will get special treatment from the consular officers responsible for issuing visitor visas. With the ban in place, thousands of Iranian fans could be denied entry and prevented from following their team at the tournament. Advertisement The other 11 countries on the banned list — Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — have either been eliminated from World Cup qualification or are unlikely to qualify, though Sudan is in contention. But people from those countries could still be interested in visiting for the tournament. Among the seven countries subject to partial travel restrictions — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela — only Venezuela is in contention to qualify. Many, if not all, of the 19 countries named will send athletes to the 2028 Olympics, which will be held in and around Los Angeles. It's unclear to what extent their support staff and extended family members might be impacted by the ban — which could, of course, be challenged or changed between now and 2026 or 2028.
CNN
31 minutes ago
- CNN
Sources: Trump Unhappy About Musk Blasting Agenda Bill - CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip - Podcast on CNN Audio
Sources: Trump Unhappy About Musk Blasting Agenda Bill CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip 47 mins Travel ban 2.0. The President goes bigger in the sequel and bans travelers from twelve countries after an antisemitic attack. Plus, which side will Republicans choose in Elon Musk's war against Trump's spending agenda?
