TRANSCRIPT:
I think a lot of people in this country or in the free world at large, they simply may not understand the value of Voice of America or Radio Liberty. Not me, I mean, I grew up in the Soviet Union with millions and millions of others, on the other side of [the] Iron Curtain. We were trying to, as we say in Russian, to catch the wave. Because it’s airwaves. Because we knew that the Soviet propaganda was crap and we had to just look for some real news. It’s like breathing fresh air.
And I remember I was a kid and it was just very important — Voice of America, Radio Liberty, Deutsche Welle, BBC. And in 1990, 1991, we thought okay, fine, that’s it. You know it may not be as important, there were many other places on the planet. So even when Russia was temporarily free from communism from the past or, you know, yet before we got a new KGB dictator. So what is 10, 15 years. So Voice America was still, you know, operating because of many other places, but even in Russia it was still there.
And I think it’s very hard to overrate the importance of Voice of America. I mean the name itself, “Voice of America.” America has been viewed by many endless millions of people around the world as a beacon of hope, as the garden of freedom. And listening to the Voice of America — and I emphasize the Voice of America that’s, you know, was just like receiving the message from the other planet — and to close it down at a time where we could see the resurrection of the most aggressive, authoritarian, totalitarian form of government. When tyranny, the darkest force of tyranny, are just advancing, just almost everywhere on the planet.
Published
Kasparov is a chess grandmaster, the World Chess Champion from 1985–2000, and a pro-democracy activist. Since retiring from competitive chess, he has become a prominent critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin.