Garry Kasparov calls for boycotting 2018 World Cup Russia

13th World Chess Champion, Grandmaster Garry Kasparov (Russia), has called on foreign politicians to boycott the 2018 FIFA World Cup which Russia will host.
“I am usually against belatedly boycotting sporting events, since I believe that it punishes only the athletes,” Kasparov wrote in a column of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper of Germany. “But I am against the [current] regime in Moscow and the hostile actions which the leadership of Russia takes.”
Garry Kasparov considers the recent poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, in Great Britain, as one such hostile action by Moscow.
In addition, the chess GM criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for congratulating Vladimir Putin in his convincing victory in the most recent presidential election of Russia.
The 2018 World Cup will be held from June 14 to July 15 in eleven Russian cities.

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