azsayings.com 1,000,000++ Kutipan dan Pepatah

Garry Kasparov: "Ketika [Vladimir] Putin, mantan letnan kolonel di KGB...

"Ketika [Vladimir] Putin, mantan letnan kolonel di KGB, menjadi presiden Rusia pada 31 Desember 1999 - delapan tahun setelah upaya kudeta yang gagal terhadap (kemudian pemimpin Soviet Mikhail) Gorbachev, dan delapan tahun setelah orang-orang menghancurkan patung Felix Dzerzhinsky, pendiri KGB yang dibenci, di Moskow - itu memang mengejutkan. Meskipun demikian, saya memutuskan untuk memberi kesempatan pada Putin. Dia tampak dinamis dan mampu belajar. Tetapi saya harus mengubur harapan saya setelah hanya beberapa bulan. Dia terbukti menjadi otokrat - dan, karena Barat membiarkannya melakukan apa saja sesukanya, dia menjadi seorang diktator."

--- Garry Kasparov

Versi Bahasa Inggris

When [Vladimir] Putin, a former lieutenant-colonel in the KGB, became Russia's president on December 31, 1999 - eight years after the failed coup attempt against (then Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev, and eight years after the people had torn down the statue of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the hated founder of the KGB, in Moscow - it was admittedly a shock. Nevertheless, I decided to give Putin a chance. He seemed dynamic and capable of learning. But I had to bury my hopes after just a few months. He proved to be an autocrat - and, because the West let him do as he pleased, he became a dictator.