Ex-Russian chess champion says Putin already has sunk his teeth into Republicans in Congress

An ex-Russian chess champion revealed Sunday he believes President Vladimir Putin has sunken his teeth into "an enfeebled Congress."

Garry Kasparov tweeted, "While most concerns about the U.S. becoming like Putin's Russia focused on an authoritarian president, I'm starting to worry about an enfeebled Congress with extremist wings like Russia's: Nationalists and Communists!"

His thread continued, "Such extremes can push people toward a relatively reasonable sounding authoritarian. Putin had the nationalist ranting of Zhirinovsky and the Communist Zyuganov to make him look like the only sane choice. As I wrote years ago about this radicalization trend, the 'Spanish Civil War' model, this isolates the middle. But that presumes an eventual victory by one side. Instead, it can leave an opening for a opportunistic agnostic like Putin, who cares only for power."

Kasparov said he wasn't only alarmed by the threat of extremism.

"Extremism isn't the only danger, dysfunction and stagnation are too. If Congress is increasingly seen as abdicating its powers as the first branch, people will continue to support the expansion of executive power when their party has power," Kasparov warned. "I wrote about the need for a 'popular front' against Trump in Jan. The emphasis is usually on one extremist side winning the the winner-take-all prize. But discrediting the parliament and regular politics is a more subtle danger."

He continued, "Putin cares more about the type of person who wins than their politics, and he supports extremists on all sides in his interference campaigns. Not just for chaos, but to delegitimize the system and make an autocrat more likely to rise. Trump attacking the legitimacy of the election doesn't really end on January 20. It's an attack on the legitimacy of Biden as president. Trump is never going to stop saying he was cheated, and his GOP enablers are destabilizing the country with their silence."

Exposing the GOP for their ineptitude followed -- and included the concept of treason.

"Only five GOP Senators have acknowledged reality by my count. Cruz is tweeting pictures about Thanksgiving when he and his colleagues are the real turkeys. Constitutionalists? Rule of law? Or Trump? They have chosen and it won't be forgotten," Kasparov said. "Right now it's high crimes and misdemeanors. But if Trump holds a rally on January 21, saying he's the real president, is that not treason? Aside from the violence it would likely lead to, it's an attack on the union itself."

See the full thread below.