Gary Kasparov thinks that Vladimir Putin has a lot to gain from a Donald Trump presidency. | Getty Russian opposition activist: Trump is Putin's 'best hope'

One of Russia’s leading opposition activists Wednesday decried the rise of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as the United States' own version of “Putinism,” saying the New York real estate mogul's election would be the “best hope” for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his dictatorial regime.

Garry Kasparov, the former world chess champion and democratic political activist, said he's committed to “preventing the rise of Putinism, whether it is in Russia or this country.”


“I wish it would be a joke,” he told the Aspen Institute during a Washington forum. “It is not. What we are seeing in this election cycle is it’s an attack on the American way of life and democracy.”

Kasparov said he sees an assault on American ideals coming from both ends of the political spectrum.

"The fact is that in both parties you have very powerful trends that are pushing it to the opposite sides, sort of creating not a consensus but a conflicting field. It worries me. Economically, [it is] from [Bernie] Sanders' supporters, you know, reviving the socialism," he said of the Vermont senator's surprisingly successful insurgent campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination.

"As someone raised in a communist country, it is anathema," Kasparov said. "People seem to forget what socialism was. They don’t seem to realize that the luxury of talking about socialism was paid for by capitalism."

"On the other side," he continued, "you have, of course, the rise of Donald Trump," who has made admiring statements about the Russian leader. "That is an attack on liberty."

Trump's so-called "America First" foreign policy, in Kasparov's view, would be a disaster and only embolden Putin.

"Putin's biggest hope? Donald Trump," Kasparov said. "This is the way to weaken American democracy and the trans-Atlantic relations."

Kasparov, who lives in New York, was in Washington to discuss his new book, "Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must be Stopped."

He said the world desperately needs the kind of American leadership that was provided from both major political parties during the Cold War.

"Recently I watched again this Kennedy-Nixon debate, in 1960, when candidates could disagree on means but they could agree on goals," Kasparov said. "Now, I am afraid we will be entering a very different kind of debate where substance will be totally trumped.”

He also didn’t mince words when discussing President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, John Kerry, who he described as a weak negotiator with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"I'm afraid if Kerry and Lavrov stay in the room too long, Kerry will give Alaska back to Russia," Kasparov said.

Asked whether there are specific steps he would recommend the U.S. take to confront Putin, Kasparov responded: "The answer is nothing. The only thing America can do is to use the credibility of the Oval Office. It has none today. At the end of the day, you don't want to start a war. Credibility helps you make a threat — a threat that scares bad guys."

"It is time to start thinking what will happen in five, 10, 15 years — a long-term vision has to be offered," he added. "Maybe, this administration still has a chance of laying down the agenda. It is very important that America has to restore its adherence to a credible and consistent foreign policy."