Kasparov to remain abroad

Former chess grandmaster and political activist Garry Kasparov has said he will not come back to Russia because his freedom to subsequently leave the country could be curtailed, RIA News reports. 

Kasparov’s announcement comes less than a week after prominent economist Sergei Guriev fled Russia, fearing arrest for his work on a report heavily criticizing the jailing of oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

“Right now I have serious doubts that if I return to Moscow I will be able to travel back. For the time being I refrain from returning to Russia,” RIA News quotes Kasparov. 

Kasparov linked the risk of his detention with an investigation into the actions of protestors who clashed with police on the eve of Putin’s presidential inauguration last year; a case which the opposition insists is politically motivated, RIA News says.