New Delhi: Former World Chess Champion and Russian expatriate Garry Kasparov on Saturday shared a Russian internet joke on his official Twitter handle saying, "We are now entering day 24 of the special military operation to take Kyiv in two days."
While slamming Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Kasparov said, "Putin doesn't need anything from the West except for cash for oil & gas. Xi & China depend far more on its relationship with the West because economic disruption could lead to political turmoil. But the free world is afraid to use that leverage. Now it's exposed."
Earlier, Kasparov had requested world powers to adopt a harsher military and economic strategy against Russian President Vladimir Putin for his attack on Ukraine.
Kasparov, a former chief of the Human Rights Foundation in New York who was engaged in the anti-Kremlin opposition protest movement while he resided in Moscow, had told Reuters that there can be no peace in the area until Putin is ousted from office.
The 58-year-old Kasparov fled Russia in 2014, alleging fear of persecution, and now resides in Croatia. From 1984 until his retirement in 2005, Kasparov maintained the world's number one position for a remarkable 255 months.
Russia-Ukraine Conflict
After President Vladimir Putin sanctioned a "special military operation" to "demilitarise and denazify" Ukraine on February 24, Russia invaded its neighbouring country.
The UN has registered at least 596 civilian fatalities since the invasion, while it believes the exact toll is significantly higher.