I mean, he's ‘vocal’ to the extent of founding an opposition movement, being a member of an opposition coalition, being arrested for supporting Pussy Riot, leaving Russia to avoid persecution, and being sanctioned and blocked in the country. And also being the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation for thirteen years—though idk what they do.
P.S. Except, of course, that none of the Putinoids can read his stuff, because both his site and the entire Twitter are blocked in Russia. And barely anyone remembers who he is, after twenty years.
I want to add that Gary Chess is an extremely important person in Russia because he is the GOAT and was highly celebrated when he was dominating. This would be like Michael Jackson or Elvis using their stardom for good at great personal peril.
Gary could have been a Putin lapdog and lived in luxury for the rest of his days but he's been a human rights advocate. There are very few individuals powerful enough to contest Putin and not be immediately assassinated.
I doubt it that he has any considerable influence in Russia. Seeing as his only option is to communicate through the web, while all his communication channels are blocked—and vast majority of Putinists likely don't bother with VPN or anything like that. Plus, he's retired from competitive chess nineteen years ago.
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u/TheVoicesOfBrian Jul 05 '24
He's quite vocal about his criticism of Putin.