4 ms·

Tell HN: Kasparov's 2015 book should have been a must read for many

57 points by netfortius 5y ago

Garry Kasparov - Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Coming-Vladimir-Enemies-Stopped-ebook/dp/B06XCCZJ7D

copperwater69 5y ago
I read his book about deep blue and found it pretty repetitive
muzani 5y ago
This would probably be more visible as a standard submission (title plus link, then add 2015 at the end of the title).
- unfocussed_mike 5y ago
  Perchance a bit more neutral to link to his own page about his book: https://www.kasparov.com/winter-is-coming/ https://www.kasparov.com/winter-is-coming/ It has multiple publishers but the British/American edition's publisher is Atlantic Books: https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/winter-is-coming/ https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/winter-is-coming/
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
Borrible 5y ago
Actually, anyone who didn't buy Francis Fukuyama could look up what would happen on a handfull of maps, diagrams and statistics. Even the official Russian ones. Russia is landlocked or easily cut off. Russia has vast empty stretches of land without population and transport routes. Russia's main population centers and easily destructible logistic infrastructure lies to the west. Russia has nine geostrategically important entry points that have to be secured. Russia has to expand its sphere of influence to secure them. Russia lost most of them in the early nineties and declined from Global Power to ignored bystander. Their demographics works against them. Their time runs out. It's an Russian Empire or it's nothing. If the west fuck it up in the next weeks, it may see a last warning over the baltic sea in form of a light brighter than thousand suns. p.s. And yes, I think Putin is mad and paranoid. And that is the problem.
- voisin 5y ago
  > If the west fuck it up in the next weeks, it may see a last warning over the baltic sea in form of a light brighter than thousand suns. For those of us in fear of seeing that light brighter than a thousand suns, what do you think fucking up / not fucking up would look like on the part of the west?
  - Borrible 5y ago
    Ukraine is lost. Russia too. Ramp up defense to the max and stay with it. For a long, long time. Do show strength, that is of utter importance. Do not threaten their geostrategically important entry points they already took back in the last years. Direct help to Ukraine is risky, but morally unavoidable. Make the Russian pay for it heavily, but that also means the Ukrainians pay heavily. And there is always the risk of that bright light over the baltics. The Ukrainians may be a bit more than pissed, but the Russians would love to have hands on Odessa, Charkiw and Dnipropetrowsk among other things because of the weapons manufacturer there. I say hands on, they don't need to be there personally. That is what they mean with disarmament of the Ukraine. You may get a puppet regime there and that admirably tough little fucker Wolodymyr Selenskyj out alive. Oh, and yes, about two to four million Ukrainian refugees that somehow seem to prefer western decadence over Russian brotherhood. That is what I meant with the Ukrainians will be a bit more than pissed. They are fucked, plain and simple. But then again, all smaller nations that trust global Powers are fucked sooner or later, aren't they? Get those bloody Euros, especially Germans, get their shit together on their own in the long run. I know that sounds impossible. I have to know, I'm one of them, albeit one of their rarer specimen. And for a long time it was a good idea for the US not to let them left without supervision. They were responsible for two World Wars, remember? But there is no other way, they, especially the Germans, have to bleed a bit to stand on their own. They are cowardly and comfortable but for now stinking rich, so stirr them up. Pray Putin dies early in his bed, with or without the help of some less paranoid fraction of the apparatus. I doubt the latter. If the Russians want to make it on their own, now with a grey Tsar after they had it with red Tsars and before that with real Tsars, or for that matter with the Chinese, let them do it until the arctic melts and they begin to catch the scent of danger there. In short, do Cold War 2. And never forget, whatever you do, the Chinese are watching carefully. So show them what may happen. No business, even if it hurts badly.
kerneloftruth 5y ago
Europe should have listened to a clearly stated warning even more recently: when Trump warned about Germany depending on Russian gas https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline-idUSKBN1K10VI https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline-idUS...
zelphirkalt 5y ago
Kasparov ran to be elected, probably knowing, that he wont win the election, but to show the world as a public figure, how things go in Russia. Days before the election, if I remember correctly, he was detained by the police, like many people are, whom Putler doesn't like. Kasparov was always the more intelligent one of the two. But of course he does not have the support of all the corrupt people, and election practices in Russia are not the best. Like opposition candidates not being allowed to run [1]. He has been warning us about Putler for a long time. Probably many people have warned us and anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last decade or so, would have realized, what a madman is in power there. [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58614227 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58614227
_ttg 5y ago
Sorry, but Kasparov is a charlatan with zero qualifications to speak on complex global geopolitics. His main claim to fame is inserting himself into Russian opposition politics for two years post-retirement and then cosplaying to US neocon audiences as a Soviet expert. HN would be particularly unimpressed by the book which is pretty tedious and self-referential and only prescient in the most obvious ways.
- azeirah 5y ago
  So what other books should we read right now so we can form our own opinion?
  - _ttg 5y ago
    Here's a respected UChicago professor that offers an alternative hypothesis than the dominant 'Putin bad' narrative https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-18/why-ukraine-crisis-west-s-fault https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-1...

57 points by netfortius 5y ago

Garry Kasparov - Winter Is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Coming-Vladimir-Enemies-Stopped-ebook/dp/B06XCCZJ7D

copperwater69 5y ago

I read his book about deep blue and found it pretty repetitive

muzani 5y ago

This would probably be more visible as a standard submission (title plus link, then add 2015 at the end of the title).

unfocussed_mike 5y ago
Perchance a bit more neutral to link to his own page about his book: https://www.kasparov.com/winter-is-coming/ https://www.kasparov.com/winter-is-coming/ It has multiple publishers but the British/American edition's publisher is Atlantic Books: https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/winter-is-coming/ https://atlantic-books.co.uk/book/winter-is-coming/

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

Borrible 5y ago

Actually, anyone who didn't buy Francis Fukuyama could look up what would happen on a handfull of maps, diagrams and statistics. Even the official Russian ones. Russia is landlocked or easily cut off. Russia has vast empty stretches of land without population and transport routes. Russia's main population centers and easily destructible logistic infrastructure lies to the west. Russia has nine geostrategically important entry points that have to be secured. Russia has to expand its sphere of influence to secure them. Russia lost most of them in the early nineties and declined from Global Power to ignored bystander. Their demographics works against them. Their time runs out. It's an Russian Empire or it's nothing. If the west fuck it up in the next weeks, it may see a last warning over the baltic sea in form of a light brighter than thousand suns. p.s. And yes, I think Putin is mad and paranoid. And that is the problem.

voisin 5y ago
> If the west fuck it up in the next weeks, it may see a last warning over the baltic sea in form of a light brighter than thousand suns. For those of us in fear of seeing that light brighter than a thousand suns, what do you think fucking up / not fucking up would look like on the part of the west?
- Borrible 5y ago
  Ukraine is lost. Russia too. Ramp up defense to the max and stay with it. For a long, long time. Do show strength, that is of utter importance. Do not threaten their geostrategically important entry points they already took back in the last years. Direct help to Ukraine is risky, but morally unavoidable. Make the Russian pay for it heavily, but that also means the Ukrainians pay heavily. And there is always the risk of that bright light over the baltics. The Ukrainians may be a bit more than pissed, but the Russians would love to have hands on Odessa, Charkiw and Dnipropetrowsk among other things because of the weapons manufacturer there. I say hands on, they don't need to be there personally. That is what they mean with disarmament of the Ukraine. You may get a puppet regime there and that admirably tough little fucker Wolodymyr Selenskyj out alive. Oh, and yes, about two to four million Ukrainian refugees that somehow seem to prefer western decadence over Russian brotherhood. That is what I meant with the Ukrainians will be a bit more than pissed. They are fucked, plain and simple. But then again, all smaller nations that trust global Powers are fucked sooner or later, aren't they? Get those bloody Euros, especially Germans, get their shit together on their own in the long run. I know that sounds impossible. I have to know, I'm one of them, albeit one of their rarer specimen. And for a long time it was a good idea for the US not to let them left without supervision. They were responsible for two World Wars, remember? But there is no other way, they, especially the Germans, have to bleed a bit to stand on their own. They are cowardly and comfortable but for now stinking rich, so stirr them up. Pray Putin dies early in his bed, with or without the help of some less paranoid fraction of the apparatus. I doubt the latter. If the Russians want to make it on their own, now with a grey Tsar after they had it with red Tsars and before that with real Tsars, or for that matter with the Chinese, let them do it until the arctic melts and they begin to catch the scent of danger there. In short, do Cold War 2. And never forget, whatever you do, the Chinese are watching carefully. So show them what may happen. No business, even if it hurts badly.

kerneloftruth 5y ago

Europe should have listened to a clearly stated warning even more recently: when Trump warned about Germany depending on Russian gas https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline-idUSKBN1K10VI https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline-idUS...

zelphirkalt 5y ago

Kasparov ran to be elected, probably knowing, that he wont win the election, but to show the world as a public figure, how things go in Russia. Days before the election, if I remember correctly, he was detained by the police, like many people are, whom Putler doesn't like. Kasparov was always the more intelligent one of the two. But of course he does not have the support of all the corrupt people, and election practices in Russia are not the best. Like opposition candidates not being allowed to run [1]. He has been warning us about Putler for a long time. Probably many people have warned us and anyone who hasn't been living under a rock for the last decade or so, would have realized, what a madman is in power there. [1]: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58614227 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-58614227

_ttg 5y ago

Sorry, but Kasparov is a charlatan with zero qualifications to speak on complex global geopolitics. His main claim to fame is inserting himself into Russian opposition politics for two years post-retirement and then cosplaying to US neocon audiences as a Soviet expert. HN would be particularly unimpressed by the book which is pretty tedious and self-referential and only prescient in the most obvious ways.

azeirah 5y ago
So what other books should we read right now so we can form our own opinion?
- _ttg 5y ago
  Here's a respected UChicago professor that offers an alternative hypothesis than the dominant 'Putin bad' narrative https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-18/why-ukraine-crisis-west-s-fault https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/russia-fsu/2014-08-1...