Robert Amsterdam

The new edition of Time Magazine has a brief profile of Garry Kasparov.

Excerpt:

Putin, Kasparov insists, is getting weaker by the day, as oil prices fall and his entourage starts to look for the protection they will need when he is gone. The Other Russia has brought together a number of groups, from the old nationalist left to the liberal right. All have agreed on a program of fundamental political reform, including a reduction of presidential power, more authority for the parliament and a delegation of authority to the regions. The group's members hope to coalesce around a single presidential candidate in 2008.

For now, that seems unlikely to be Kasparov. He says he is merely a "moderator" between left and right. But he isn't taking chances. In a Russia where crusading journalists like Anna Politkovskaya have been shot, he travels with bodyguards. Russians must take responsibility for change, he says. All he wants from the West is an unequivocal message to the Russian ruling élite that "there will be consequences if they don't play by the rules in 2008."