“Every country has its own mafia. In Russia, the mafia has its own country.”
Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion
2000s
Interview with The Morning Hustle, as quoted in The Daily Mail (2 March 2022) https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10566331/Ukraine-country-Europe-Kamala-explains-Putins-invasion-laymens-terms.html <br class="br">2022, March 2022
“Every country has its own mafia. In Russia, the mafia has its own country.”
Garry Kasparov (1963) former chess world champion
2000s
Vitali Klitschko (1971) Ukrainian boxer and politician
Tweeted https://twitter.com/Klitschko/status/1519008421500043266 26 April 2022 during the Russian invasion of Ukraine
Fiona Hill (presidential advisor) (1965) American policy adviser
House Intelligence Committee impeachment hearing (2019)
Uladzimir Nyaklyayew (1946) Belarusian politician and writer
Некляев в Вашингтоне http://naviny.by/rubrics/politic/2016/04/01/ic_articles_112_191337 // naviny.by (in Russian)
Alexey Navalny (1976) Russian anti-corruption activist
As quoted in "Net Impact: One man's cyber-crusade against Russian corruption" http://archive.is/FGqQE (4 April 2011), by Julia Ioffe, The New Yorker
Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935) Polish politician and Prime Minister
Aleksandra Piłsudski, Memoirs of Madame Piłsudski, 1940
Attributed
James A. Michener (1907–1997) American author
"A Spelunker in the Caves of History" in Modern Maturity (August 1985)
Boris Yeltsin (1931–2007) 1st President of Russia and Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR
Interview on Zerkalo http://web.archive.org/web/20021117080050/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/6011-5.cfm (RTR) (29 December 2001) <br class="br">2000s <br class="br">Context: It looks as if some people either have a short memory and are forgetting about that time and the events that occurred then … Let us recall the putsch of August 19, 1991. It was after the putsch that the republics began, one after another, to declare their independence.<br>Russia also declared its independence. This was approved by the Supreme Soviet, and you know and remember that there was the Declaration on the Independence of Russia. So, the entire course of history was leading to a point when the regime, the political regime in the country had to be changed. It demonstrated that the Union was not as strong as this was loudly preached by mass media and the propaganda in general. The republics wished to become independent. This must only be welcomed... We have good peaceful relations and there were no military clashes. None of these countries had revolutions with bloody casualties and there was no civil war in any of the republics... Russia had to change and it did change.