RPT-Kasparov says Russia has become a "police state"

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By Jan Lopatka

PRAGUE, June 5 (Reuters) - Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov said on Tuesday that Russia had become a "police state" and urged the West to stop providing President Vladimir Putin with "democratic credentials".

Kasparov, a leader of the United Civil Front opposition group, said civil society, human rights and the rule of law had all suffered greatly under Putin.

His comments came ahead of Wednesday's meeting in Germany of leaders of the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

Kasparov said that by taking Putin seriously, western countries were giving him credibility at home, leaving ordinary Russians with no sense that something is wrong.

"Russia today is a police state masquerading as a democracy," Kasparov told a panel at a democracy and security conference in the Czech capital.

"... And yet tomorrow, the leaders of the free world will sit down in Germany and treat Vladimir Putin as an equal ... Putin needs the help of the free world to maintain this illusion."

U.S. President George W. Bush gave a keynote address at the conference, in which he said Russia's democratic reforms had been "derailed" under Putin.

Kasparov, who has launched several attacks against the Kremlin since Russian authorities prevented him and other protesters in mid-May from travelling to a Russia-EU summit, said Bush's speech did not go far enough.

He said western leaders could do more to isolate Putin -- who on Monday called himself an "absolute, pure democrat" -- to send the message that he cannot "act like Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko and be treated as a democratic leader".

"He (Bush) accepted that Russia is going in the wrong direction," Kasparov said. "(But) the statement is timid, it's not enough."

Last week Kasparov urged the European Union to press for a free and democratic presidential election in Russia next year.

He and several other Russian opposition politicians have also filed a complaint against Moscow at the European Court of Human Rights over their treatment at a rally in April.

Putin is due to step down in 2008 after two terms as president, but is expected to anoint a successor candidate for the Kremlin.

"What we have in Russia, is an entirely superficial display of democracy," said Kasparov.

Keywords: RUSSIA KASPAROV/