Chess player Garry Kasparov criticizes Vladimir Putin on election day in Russia

From the Daily Telegraph 'Our president who rules without checks':

A suggestion to the West, then. If you don't condemn what is going on in Russia just stay away. If you give tacit approval to Mr Putin's actions by "expressing concern" and doing nothing you may as well present him with open congratulations for rigging elections, imprisoning detractors, and taking control of the media.

There can hardly be space in this newspaper to review all of the Kremlin's activities toward centralising power and silencing the opposition, so a few well-chosen examples must suffice. After all, this Putin regime is a new type of police state with a mix of both old and new anti-democratic machinery.

Mr. Kasparov's list:

Chechnya is used a bogeyman

Only Putin loyalists are allowed to run television stations or newspapers

Putin requires bribes from businesses--or they are prosecuted on flimsy pretexts.

In January, the Free Choice 2008 Committee was established to work towards truly free elections for Russia's president in 2008:

We are attempting to call global attention to the disaster that is occurring in Russia.

The committee is working with various non-government organisations inside and outside of the country in order to document the abuses of the Putin regime while there is still time to remedy them.

The committee's central call is for the lawful election of the Russian president in 2008. We seek to prevent any foul play with the constitution that would allow the sitting president to stay in power. The committee hopes to organise a movement toward general, free and fair elections. Without such elections there will be no protection for the rights of the minority, and the rapid slide into completely authoritarian rule will pick up speed.

The Free Choice 2008 Committee is also tackling the many violations that occurred during the December elections. We are meeting to consider challenges in the Russian court system, ending if necessary in the Supreme Court.

We recognise the enormity of the challenge and seek to enlist the aid of the western nations that so often claim to defend democracy wherever it is threatened. It is worth noting that European parliaments have been freer to condemn Russia's failures than the leaders of these countries, all of whom have remained all but silent.

The engagement of countries such as the UK and the US is not only essential for them to avoid charges of hypocrisy; there is a moral imperative at stake as well. As Gladstone said in 1879 regarding Disraeli's foreign policy: "Remember that the sanctity of human life in the hill villages of Afghanistan among the winter snows is as inviolable in the eye of Almighty God as can be your own."