mr. kasparov. what do you see as soviets' intentions in the caribbean? we see that, for example, there's been more ship calls in cuba, we see that they're reactivating the listening post in lords, we see them extending their influence and cooperation, countries like venezuela and bolivia and others. what do you think? what is putin up to in this part of the world? >> guest: i think it's too early to say that he has specific plans because he doesn't have the resources of the soviet union to attack in many directions. but naturally, putin will be looking for every opportunity to extend his power, and, you know, he now be enjoys, you know, working relations, nice working relations with cuba because he has written the soviet, old soviet debt. and i think that he still is viewing cuba as a strong russian ally. you correctly mentioned venezuela and other, you know, countries in the continent with leftist governments that putin could believe, you know, eventually would be his allies in the new coalition t

mr. kasparov. a couple of years ago on frontline on pbs that put on a documentary on putin which basically portrayed him as someone who bribed blackmailed and brutalized his way to power. also they talked about his accumulation of great wealth and i'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about that and also what you see as of the future for russia at this point. >> guest: i talked about putin and i could repeat that. he controls enormous amounts of money, more than any other individual and it's all connected to him staying in power. he can move hundreds of billions of dollars. next to the trillion dollars because he controls the russian budget and directly the fortunes of many oligarchs everything they have made over the years. so we don't expect putin to walk away from the kremlin peacefully. that's why unfortunately i don't have a good weather forecast for you. i always ask people not to be highly critical of the weatherman and the weather forecast. were -- russia will experience great turbul

mrs. kasparov. but he is, of course, in a position person and one can expect him to say such things. i think mr. putin is a person who really loves russia. he's really patriotic of russia and wants russia to be strong from economic point of view. once mentioned, one, two years ago mr. putin was named as the most powerful person in the world. >> rose: this year. >> it was previous occasion as well. and when he was asked about this, he said look, today the strength and power depends on economic strength and russia is not strong enough economicically, you know, to be moses powerful. so i think he is real statistics in understanding the role of russia but definitely wants russia to be powerful, and respected. i think that is important. >> would you hope that every political leader would want that for his country, to be powerful, respected, to be creating economic sick sess towards people. >> but russia-- russian society probably was feeling a little bit differently because after the collapse of the soviet union which was a big, powerful country, at least how people saw t they said okay,

mr. kasparov. i've been aware of your existence, you've been on the world stage a long time. and obviously initially was chess, and then it was politics, and i think you have a misperception about the united states. theirs enormous amount of hostility that-under elites have for putin and russia, treating him contemptuously and minimizing his strength and now doing the opposite, fearful he is going to invade nato, the pool tick states. if could, i have a couple comments and a question. if i could, you have to go back and -- i go back during the yeltsin era -- yeltsin was an alcoholic and was a disaster. that's when the oligarchs grabbed the assets of the country, and the russian, ethnic russian grandmothers were begging in the streets and the oligarchs had their billions. they appointed putin. he came in and immediately i think he changed the situation. obviously it took time, but in the united states, our foreign policy -- we went into the middle east and because of the neoconservatives, which frankly, mr. kasparov of that's the only association i've seen of you, is being aff

mr. kasparov, what's your history with vladimir putin? >> guest: i never met vladimir

mr. kasparov. what do you see as soviet's intentions in the caribbean.we see the more ship calls in cuba, we see they've reactivating the listening post. we see them extending their influence and cooperation, countries like venezuela and bolivia and others. what do you think? what is putin up to to in this part of the world. >> guest: too early to say he doesn't have specific plans because he doesn't have the resources to attack in many directions, but naturally putin is looking for every opportunity to extend his power, and now enjoys working relations, nice works relations with cuba because he has written the old soviet debt and i think he is viewing cuba as the strong russian ally. you correctly mentioned venezuela and other countries in the continent with governments that putin could believe, eventually would be allies in the new coalition to defy the united states to challenge american interests. it's very important to remember that unlike for the soviet leaders, for putin expansion is important for domestic purpose because he has to demonstrate tha