Chess legend fears arrest on Russian return

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Chess legend Garry Kasparov says he is staying out of Russia, as 12 protesters face long prison terms over anti-Putin demonstrations, Sky News reports.

The former world chess champion has in recent years become an impassioned campaigner against the rule of President Vladimir Putin and took part in some of the mass opposition street protests against his rule.

He was arrested last year for protesting outside the court when Pussy Riot members were on trial.

Kasparov now says he fears he could be investigated as part of a crackdown on the opposition if he returns home.

"I kept travelling back and forth until late February when it became clear that I might be part of this ongoing investigation of the activities of the political protesters," Kasparov said in Geneva on Wednesday, according to an audio recording posted on his website.

"Right now, I have serious doubts that if I return to Moscow I may not be able to travel back. So for the time being I refrain from returning to Russia."

Defendants facing trial over clashes with the police during an anti-Putin protest The defendants inside the 'Aquarium'

The chess champion's concerns come as the 12 Russians have appeared at a pre-trial hearing in Moscow, accused of violence at a rally on the eve of Putin's inauguration last year.

Ten defendants are taking part in the hearing from inside a glass-walled cage known as an "aquarium" while two more, who are not under arrest, are seated on a bench.

The pre-trial hearing in the 'Bolotnaya case', named for the Moscow square where the violence broke out on May 6, 2012, opens a new page in what his foes say is a determined clampdown on dissent.

Kremlin critics are likening the case to the Soviet-era show trials of dissidents.

Putin has signed laws activists say restrict freedoms, civic groups are under pressure from prosecutors and prominent opposition leader Alexei Navalny could be sentenced to 10 years in prison in a trial he says is politically motivated.



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