Here is a video of Garry's arrest. It hurts so much to see a person you like and respect treated like this. There is a short ad first...it's how the BBC makes money.

BBC video of Garry being arrested.

The punk got beaten up. Nice. Hope he learns his place.

He should stick to fundraising and playing other retired grandmasters.

Whatever you think of him, having him beat up is neither nice nor legal nor moral. It is sad to see anybody beaten up. It is just a sad episode.

Whoa...and some people claim they are fans of boxing...

Hope Garry Kasparov is all right. Beating was too much, but i think that is the crazy thing about Russian politics, where a national hero can be beaten ?!.. I find it interesting.

I hope the Russian authorities show some consideration in their treatment of 'national assets'.
..and free Pussy Riots too!.. LOL

As far as I can see from the video, nobody has beaten Kasparov up. He was simply taken to an arrest van by manhandling. It's a complete disgrace, nevertheless. Reflects very poorly on civil liberties in Russia, and on the Russian nation as a whole, if they can treat an icon like that. Deserves the strongest condemnation.

yeah right, let's all play dumb here. he came to badmouth putin. putin asked the cops to take him away. they tried to lead him away peacefully. he resisted. they carried him away. this is nothing abnormal in any country. being a 'national asset' does not entitle you any extra civil liberties that aren't applicable to any citizen.

I think Garry's problem is that he has an inflated opinion of what his name brings to the cause. If he were still world champion and banging out impressive tournament wins like he used to, I think adding his name to a cause would carry more weight. More people would listen to his pulpit and be offended at his 'roughing up'. However, in his current retired state there are a great many people that no longer view him as relevant. Now it is easier to manipulate the way he appears in the media. Garry just does not carry the same influence any more, and now it is easier to just remove him and shut him up.

It is tragic that he was beaten. Although, the video hardly shows him being 'beaten'. I only saw the video Inky posted and it just generally shows the police picking him up and placing him in the bus. If he was 'beaten' it probably happened in there behind the curtains.

Hopefully he can learn from this and have someone else who is far more objective help him truly assess his impact on the political scene in Russia. It's sad that he can't show up and do some interviews without being hustled away, however, I think he forgets where he is. He understands he is an irritant to Putin and is probably a low level marked man.

Bottom line is his quarrel with Putin is not unlike an Ant's quarrel with a boot. Sadly, if he truly wants to be relevant again and have his voice heard and more respected, he is going to need to return to the top of the chess world (if he can) where he could once again garnish the command and respect of larger audiences.

Going forward he needs to be a lot smarter about how he can help his cause. Unless he does, the best he can hope for is being a martyr, which usually doesn't work out too well for the martyr.


** Update. I went to Kasparov's Facebook page and there is a video there where Kasparov appears to work his way out of the bus, only to be roughly thrown back in. WOW.

He should not have castled on the queenside it was always going to be risky