, the former world chess champion and leader of the Other Russia opposition party was arrested in Moscow on Saturday when police broke up a march of about 3,000 protesting the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his stifling of dissent.

Yes, this is the very same Putin that met with President Bush and got along so well with him that Bush was prompted to make his now famous declaration that that he had "looked in Putin's eyes and got a sense of his soul."

It is shocking to see legends like Garry Kasparov being arrested and sentenced to jail. Kasparov became the youngest ever World Chess Champion in 1985. Garry Kasparov holds the record as number 1 almost continuously from 1986 until his retirement in 2005. 

Kasparov is a legend in the world of Chess and could live extremely comfortably anywhere in the world without fear of harassment or arrest but has chosen to use his celebrity to fight the evils that have apparently returned to Russian politics.

HERE IS AN INTERVIEW ON BILL MAHER’S “REAL TIME” SHOW

Putin's opponents, including Kasparov, accuse the Kremlin chief of squelching the freedoms won after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union and of creating what they say is an unstable political system dependent on Putin alone.

Kasparov is arguably the most famous political opponent of President Vladimir Putin's increasingly authoritarian government, and a strong supporter of democracy, civil liberties, and free markets. You would think that with all of the billionaires now thriving in Russia that Putin would sit back and take credit for the abundance of “new money” in the hands of the “new capitalists” NYET!

The United States condemned on Sunday the arrest of Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov during protests in Moscow, issuing a formal statement but don’t expect the Bush Administration to do much more. WHY? …..because there is no money in it for them!