Putin v Kasparov

There is a fascinating article in the new New Yorker about Gary Kasparov. Once the world's greatest chess player, he defeated Bobby Fischer and Deep Blue, the chess playing supercomputer. It now looks as if he'll run as the opposition candidate in the next election. His party, known as the Other Russia, is made up of academics, neo-bolsheviks, liberals, ethnic minorities, and other types that the FSB would love to serve a plateful of polonium encrusted sushi. I wonder if Putin and the FSB would actually have the audacity to kill Kasparov. Would it be a PR mistake, or a useful reminder of the price of political dissidence. The assasination of those who openly oppose the Kremlin has replaced the Soviet Gulag as the preferred form of mass repression in Russia.