Everyone has gotten wildly worked up over the letter Kasparov supposedly signed to Putin, demanding that Article 282 be kept intact. Dear Mr. President, we ask you, and so on Kasparov is being denounced Ortega says Kasparov didn’t sign it Here’s what I think. Most likely, this was just the standard procedure for signing a JOINT LETTER. I’ve been in close contact with this whole crowd for a long time (and still am), so I know perfectly well how this works. There’s Lev Ponomaryov. Basically not a bad guy, but with a nasty character and a manic obsession with the subject of FASHISM (deliberately misspelled for mockery). Before the last Russian March (an annual nationalist demonstration), for example, he seriously told me: “We human rights activists do not rule out the possibility that after their march these people will stage a coup and seize power in the country. Therefore the Russian March must not be allowed.” So. Ninety-nine percent of all these idiotic collective letters are the result of his hyperactive efforts. He loves this stuff. Look around and you’ll find dozens of these little screeds online. He has thoroughly devalued the whole genre of the collective letter. So a letter “from all human rights activists” attracts no more interest than “a tent is burning in Severnoye Degunino” (a remote Moscow district; i.e. something obscure and unimportant). Lev Ponomaryov has his regular signatories—a dozen or so people who will sign any crap whatsoever (various Lydia Grafovas and the like) once “Alexeyeva and I have already signed.” Then there’s Lyudmila Alexeyeva herself, who, as is well known, can’t stand Ponomaryov, but still signs all sorts of nonsense at his request just so he’ll leave her alone sooner. Once Alexeyeva has signed a letter, it’s as if it already bears the stamp “consecrated.” And everyone else signs without even looking. In practice it goes like this. Ponomaryov calls everyone he can get on the phone and says something like: Garry, Garry (Lyosha, Lyosha / Misha, Misha / Borya, Borya), the fascists here are demanding the repeal of Article 282. They want to distribute their literature with impunity. The authorities might go along with them. So we, the human rights activists, strongly object and have prepared a response letter. Lyudmila Mikhailovna Alexeyeva and I have already signed it. You don’t mind if we add your signature too, do you? I’ll email you the text. The guy starts half-heartedly asking what exactly the letter says, but then, just to end the phone call faster, agrees. After that, the nonsense that’s been written gets sent out through a mailing list that everyone has filtered into spam. And it gets posted on the website of the “For Human Rights” movement and the HRCM website. And that’s where the mighty struggle against FASHISM ends. For that matter, that’s how most NATIONWIDE HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGNS end too. That’s all. So I think Garry Kasparov was played, and tomorrow he’ll disavow his signature. And if he doesn’t disavow it (because he’ll feel awkward in front of Ponomaryov and Co.—and when choosing between being reasonable and feeling awkward, he’ll choose awkwardness), then we’ll draw our conclusions.