Ex-World Chess Champ Garry Kasparov Slams Putin

Chessmaster and prominent dissident Garry Kasparov was added to the list of "individuals acting as foreign agents," according to the Russian Justice Ministry website -- a designation heavily criticized as a violation of human rights and a means of suppression of civil society actors and journalists, Euronews reported.

Photo Insert: "Being anti-Putin is, and always will be, pro-Russian," former world chess champion Kasparov stated.

Kasparov, who was added to the list on Friday together with another prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin's regime, former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorovsky, responded by saying that the "'Russian Justice Ministry' is an oxymoron under Putin."

"I was representing my country back when Putin was still spying on his colleagues in East Germany," Kasparov said on Twitter. "Being anti-Putin is, and always will be, pro-Russian," Kasparov concluded.

Both Kasparov and Khodorovsky have been campaigning against Russia's war in Ukraine, while also organizing supporting humanitarian relief programs.

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