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Jay Nordlinger is a senior resident fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative and a contributor at The Next Move.

To oppose a dictatorship is to court drama—great and terrible drama. Think of María Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition leader, forced into hiding for more than a year. She then escaped her country in a dangerous voyage by skiff, to collect her Nobel Peace Prize.

Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli is a member of Machado’s team. With a group of colleagues, he was holed up in the Argentinian embassy, in Caracas, for 412 days. Then came a daring, dramatic rescue operation.

Last month, Urruchurtu participated in the Geneva Summit for Human Rights and Democracy, and he and I recorded a podcast. In this podcast, Urruchurtu discusses his upbringing in chavista Venezuela. His ordeal in the embassy. The impact of Machado’s Nobel Peace Prize on the Venezuelan democracy movement. And more.

We end our podcast on this question: How did Venezuela unravel so quickly—falling from a democracy into a dictatorship—and what lesson might that provide to other peoples and nations?

But this is not the end of our conversation altogether. By e-mail, I asked him a couple of questions we did not have time to get to, “on air.”

The first concerns the leadership in Caracas. Delcy Rodríguez is the current No. 1, having replaced Nicolás Maduro, who sits in a New York jail. Does Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli view Rodríguez as an improvement over Maduro?

“No,” he says. “Delcy Rodríguez is not an alternative to Maduro because she is part of the same criminal system. For years, she has been one of the central figures of the regime, serving as vice president and holding key positions that helped sustain the authoritarian structure that destroyed Venezuela’s institutions and economy.”

Moreover, Rodríguez “played a key role in strengthening the regime’s repressive apparatus and in deepening its strategic relations with actors such as Russia and Iran.”

Urruchurtu continues, “Changing the face at the top does not change the nature of the regime. What Venezuela needs is not a reshuffling within chavismo, but a genuine democratic transition with free elections, the rule of law, and the dismantling of the repressive apparatus that has persecuted millions of Venezuelans.”

A final word, on this first question: “Replacing Maduro with Rodríguez would simply mean replacing one operator of the system with another. Venezuelans want full democracy, and that is what we are fighting for.”

And here is the second question: “What are the next steps for the democratic opposition?”

Says Urruchurtu, “The next step is very clear: to turn the democratic mandate of Venezuelans into a political transition.”

The opposition “has already achieved something fundamental,” he says. “Venezuelans expressed their will for change. Now the task is to ensure that this mandate translates into real institutional transformation.”

There are three priorities, says Urruchurtu.

(1) “International pressure and coordination to guarantee a democratic transition.”

(2) “The dismantling of the repressive apparatus, the release of all political prisoners, and the return of exiled leaders, particularly the legitimate leaders María Corina Machado and President-elect Edmundo González Urrutia, which is essential for rebuilding political life in the country.”

(3) “Free and verifiable elections, with democratic institutions restored and authoritarian structures dismantled.”

Urruchurtu says, “Transitions are complex, but the direction is clear: Venezuela has already decided to change. The challenge now is ensuring that the regime cannot continue indefinitely through cosmetic adjustments or internal succession.”

They are an incredibly brave group, these Venezuelan dissidents and democrats. Our guest is a fine example of the breed.

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A note from Garry Kasparov: The Trump administration could soon launch a war with Iran without oversight or accountability. To navigate the crisis, we will need a deep understanding of America’s place in the world rather than allow ourselves to get distracted by the outrage du jour. That’s why I’m inviting our premium subscriber community to a Zoom conversation on the last half-century of American foreign policy with Ed Luce, Financial Times US editor and author of Zbig: The Life And Times of Zbigniew Brzezinsky, America’s Great Power Prophet, taking place on Wednesday, March 4 at 5pm ET/2pm PT. You can find registration details here.

To make this opportunity more accessible, we’re offering 30% off a premium subscription, now through March 4. I don’t receive a cent from your subscription fees—everything goes to supporting the Renew Democracy Initiative. RDI is bringing political dissidents to tell their stories to students, business leaders, and public officials. Delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to frontline communities in Ukraine. And, of course, driving the conversation here on The Next Move.

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Donald Trump is still not over Joe Biden.

Trump mentioned Biden by name at least four times in his State of the Union on Tuesday. Each reference was, of course, negative—Biden caused the worst inflation in American history (plainly false); everything was stolen and rigged under Biden; Biden created America’s housing problem; Biden personally left the door open for illegal immigrant murderers. Biden, Biden, Biden!

This wasn’t an aberration. Thirteen months after Joe Biden left office, Trump remains fixated on the forty-sixth president. He comes up constantly in Trump’s interviews and social media musings.

Now, Joe Biden was far from perfect. I’ve been critical of his leadership and believe he shoulders significant responsibility for paving the road to Trump 2.0.

But the current president’s real beef with Biden is not substantive—it’s personal. Biden is only the person to have defeated Trump in an election. The ex-president’s late departure from the 2024 race denied Trump the opportunity to best him in a rematch. Now the demagogue-in-chief’s bruised ego is America’s problem.

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Contrast this with the behavior of other presidents. In their inaugural addresses, George W. Bush named Bill Clinton and Barack Obama named Bush—to thank their respective predecessors for their service. They spoke about policies they wanted to reverse or change, but they did not turn the last guy into a hate figure a la Emmanuel Goldstein of 1984.

Trump’s petty, grudge-fueled blame game complements his authoritarian persona. Authoritarianism represents a breach in the social contract—the arrangement by which people hold their leaders accountable. Yet there is no accountability if someone else is always responsible for your problems.

Look at the cycle of finger pointing in the Soviet Union. Khrushchev pinned the USSR’s problems on Stalin. Brezhnev pointed to the supposed instability of Khrushchev’s reign. And Gorbachev bemoaned Brezhnev for stagnation. Stalin, of course, couldn’t call out the messianic figure of Lenin by name—so he violently purged Lenin’s politburo instead. Blame was like a Russian nesting doll—progressively smaller men hiding within the shells of their predecessors.

Watching the State of the Union, I couldn’t help but feel like I was reliving an old Communist Party Congress. The leader lies. He lies about himself and about his predecessor. Everybody knows he is lying, but they get up for standing ovation after standing ovation. Every applause, every chant of “USA, USA, USA,” is a display of loyalty, not an affirmation of truth.

Aside from being unpresidential and undemocratic, the finger pointing is just plain wimpy. MAGA loves to cultivate a macho image—look at RFK Jr. and Pete Hegseth’s various workout videos or FBI Director Kash Patel downing a beer in the US Men’s Hockey Team locker room. Does passing the buck make you feel big and strong, or are you actually weak and desperate? Does a real man make constant excuses? Does a provider shunt responsibility? Or does he take charge and confront his challenges head on? I think you know what Trump and his apologists are willing to pass off as masculine.

This should all prompt Democrats to look in the mirror. They certainly do not engage in the same degree of personal blame games as Trump—and every condemnation of the president is richly earned. Still, there’s a well-documented habit among Democrats to fall back on being “not Trump,” which in 2026 is clearly not enough. If Democrats want to really distinguish themselves from the president, then they can lean into a positive vision for the future as their first line of attack.

That doesn’t mean letting the president and his enablers off the hook for their abuses, but it does require ditching the tit-for-tat on every single outrage, which is exactly what Trump wants (remember what happens when you wrestle with a pig).

For over a year, Donald Trump has been shadowboxing with Joe Biden, a man who will never seek elected office again. Trump cannot move on from his grudge, but Americans must move on from the politics of grievance and blame. Feeble men point fingers. Truly strong leaders build something new.

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Uriel Epshtein is the CEO of the Renew Democracy Initiative, which publishes The Next Move.

Eileen Gu is the face of a nihilistic, values-free attitude that puts narcissistic pursuit of profit above everything else.

An American skier born in San Francisco, Gu first became famous when she debuted at the 2022 Beijing Olympics on the Chinese team. At the recent Milan games, Gu faced tough questions about the actions of China’s one-party, authoritarian regime, which she dodged.

“I need to have a ton of evidence,” the 22-year-old Olympian told a Time Magazine reporter who asked about the communist government’s well-documented genocide of Uyghur Muslims.

“It’s irresponsible to ask me to be the mouthpiece of any agenda,” Gu went on to say.

But when an American chooses to play for the Chinese team they are acting as the mouthpiece for an agenda. Dictators have used sports to burnish their reputations going all the way back to the infamous 1936 Olympics in Berlin and beyond. To be an American on Team CCP is to willingly support that effort. Eileen Gu lends a human face to an ugly system.

I have the honor of working with brave Uyghur, Chinese, and Hong Kong dissidents. I have heard firsthand accounts of the abuses Gu is covering for. Listening to Gu’s denials and deflections is all the more infuriating because she and I actually share a lot of things in common (though I’ll admit Olympic-level athletic ability is not one of them).

Our parallel backgrounds have me thinking a lot about her character.

Eileen Gu and I are both first-generation Americans born to parents who experienced communist dictatorship; Gu’s mother is from China, while my parents came from the Soviet Union. We both retained an affinity for our parents’ cultures. Gu speaks fluent Mandarin and grew up traveling to China. I am fluent in Russian and spent many of my childhood summers visiting Russia. Gu’s mother clearly prioritized education, and I am sure she was overjoyed when her daughter enrolled at Stanford. I will always remember my immigrant parents’ excitement when my Yale acceptance letter arrived in the mail.

This is where the similarities end. If I opted to represent modern Russia in any capacity, I think my family would disown me. Yet Gu wears her affiliation with the Chinese Communist Party regime with pride.

Nothing suggests that Eileen Gu joined the Chinese team because she is a committed Marxist (though to be fair, neither are the CCP bosses who pay her). She is clearly proud of her Chinese heritage, but she is no uber-nationalist—you won’t hear Gu saber rattling on social media about reuniting Taiwan with the mainland. This isn’t an endorsement of communism or Chinese ultra-nationalism, but if Eileen Gu subscribed to either of these ideologies, at least we would know that she believed in something bigger than herself.

So what motivates Gu? Why did she, an American–born and raised in freedom–forfeit her ability to speak openly in order to represent the Chinese Communist Party?

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As far as I can tell, the answer is simple: fame and money. One Chinese government agency paid Gu millions of dollars directly, and she earned millions more from sponsorships. Competing for China gave her access to a huge market—Gu has become the face of over 20 brands in the People’s Republic. All told, Eileen Gu raked in $23 million last year, making her the highest-paid Winter Olympic athlete and the fourth highest-paid female athlete on the planet.

Being successful is not a crime. Success is a virtue to many immigrant families, including my own. Yet my parents also tempered raw ambition by teaching me the values of freedom and personal integrity.

Gu, by contrast, seems to have become fixated on eking out ever more money in exchange for whitewashing Chinese human rights abuses—call it the marginal value of moral compromise. Worst of all, she wasn’t faced with a choice between poverty and comfort. There is no question that an intelligent, driven person with a prestigious degree and world-class athletic talent like Eileen Gu could easily find success without selling out to a repressive police state. Perhaps she wouldn’t enjoy $23 million-a-year success, but she would still likely earn millions every year. Yet she made the decision that being even richer was worth making herself a cog in a massive authoritarian machine.

The same can be said of Gu’s sponsors and boosters—especially American media outlets that ran puff pieces about Gu and the Western companies who have deployed her for product endorsements and modeling. There are plenty of people who could have been suitable spokespeople for those firms and whose work does not directly benefit Chinese propaganda. Perhaps marketing departments and teams of PR consultants determined that Eileen Gu was the best representative for the brands, but we are once again talking about a minor difference in profit in exchange for major ethical concessions. It’s the same profit-first, amoral outlook that drives someone like Jeff Bezos to ping pong from supporting Black Lives Matter and making multi-million dollar donations to social justice organizations to funding Trumpworld. Athletes and business leaders don’t have to be activists to have something resembling a moral core.

Gu tries to wriggle out of all of this by saying that she is “carrying the weight of two nations.” I’m a Russian-speaking American Jew with a Hebrew name whose parents came from Moscow and Kyiv—I understand that immigrant identity can be… messy. There are over five million Chinese Americans. Surely many feel an emotional attachment to their culture—perhaps even the weight of two nations. Yet only a handful have ever represented the Chinese Communist Party in any capacity. Some Chinese American athletes have even resisted regime pressure to compete under the red flag of the People’s Republic. US figure skating champion Alysa Liu rebuffed Beijing’s advances. Chinese agents responded with a surveillance campaign, resulting in the FBI getting involved. At the 2022 Beijing Games, another American athlete, Nathan Chen, faced backlash on Chinese social media for criticizing the CCP.

Some have responded to criticism of Gu by pointing out that non-Americans have joined Team USA, while Americans like Zoe Atkin play for the British with little criticism. “Remarkably, no one is accusing [Atkin] of ‘betraying’ the United States in the exact same way,” wrote author Freddie deBoer “because we don’t have a relentless anti-UK propaganda apparatus in this country and because Great Britain is a majority white, English-speaking military ally of the United States.”

Cut through the pseudoacademic fluff of DeBoer’s defense and you’ll find there’s a world of difference between Britain’s or America’s flawed democracy and China’s authoritarian government. Despite Donald Trump’s best efforts, American athletes can still call out their leaders. British Olympians are free to do the same. (Gu did weigh in on Trump’s attacks against US skier Hunter Hess, literally acting out the old Soviet joke that Americans are free to criticize the president of the United States and the subjects of communist regimes are free to do the same.)

No one is demanding that Eileen Gu become a dissident—no American is obligated to speak out on the affairs of any country. But Gu is not silent: when she wraps herself in the flag of an authoritarian regime, lends it her fame, and cashes its checks, she is speaking loudly enough.

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America’s image has been taking a beating at the Winter Olympics. First, there were protests over the presence of ICE agents in Team USA’s security detail. Then, JD and Usha Vance got booed at the opening ceremonies. Now American athletes are speaking out about their country’s domestic dysfunction.

In PR, the industry term for this kind of situation is “shitshow.”

“I hope that I can use my platform and my voice throughout these Games to try to encourage people to stay strong,” figure skater Amber Glenn said at a press conference last week.

For Olympic skier Hunter Hess, “it brings up mixed emotions to represent the US right now.”

Hess’s comment evidently struck a chord, because President Donald Trump blasted him on Truth Social: “He shouldn’t have tried out for the team, and it’s too bad he’s on it.”

A question for Americans, both those who sympathize with the dissident athletes and those who support the administration: Do you ever hear the Russian Olympians criticizing their government? The Chinese? North Koreans?

Of course not. Those regimes would never tolerate the (frankly, mild) criticism American athletes are now voicing. There’d be duct tape over the mouth of any Team PRC athlete before they could get out the Mandarin for “mixed emotions.”

I should know. I represented the Soviet Union on the global chess circuit from a young age. A KGB handler always accompanied me for chess tournaments abroad. Before I turned 20, the Soviet government kept my mother back in the USSR in order to discourage defection. The communist authorities essentially made her their hostage.

Apparently, this is what MAGA wants to emulate.

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Look, I don’t expect a conservative Republican to stand by every word of a left-leaning athlete’s protest. But all patriotic Americans should celebrate the openness that allows people to speak their minds. The problem is that the Trump administration and its boosters see that openness as a flaw to be excised—a bug in the system—rather than a point of pride for the nation.

“You don’t go overseas, REPRESENTING America…and bash the US,” commentator-turned-Trump apologist Megyn Kelly admonished the outspoken Olympians.

In other words, you have rights so long as you don’t use them.

I eventually spoke out against the communist regime—even as I represented the USSR in chess. In 1989, I had an interview (with Playboy, no less!) in which I said:

There may be two political spheres in the world today, but the normal lifestyle exists in only one of them, and that is not here in the Soviet Union. Here is what I would call a distortion of normal life. It’s like living in a house of mirrors. Well, the only way out is to smash those mirrors.

A year later, I became the first person to compete in any sport under the Russian tricolor (back then it was a symbol of democratic resistance to Communist Party hegemony). The Soviet system was opening up by then, but it was far from a democracy. Criticism still carried risks.

Today, I’m mostly retired from chess. When I do appear, I never play under the Russian flag. With a genocidal war in Ukraine, the Putin regime and its legions of enablers have taken the country too far. If you’ve seen me on television or at an exhibition match, you’ll notice that I’ve replaced the Russian white-blue-red banner with a white-blue-white lapel pin to represent the opposition.

The shame I feel for my homeland is considerably less important than the physical suffering Ukrainians endure every day. Still, it is a terrible thing to lose your flag and your country. You lose your rootedness. Your community. It’s something you don’t appreciate until you’re adrift in the sea of nations.

The United States is not so far gone. US Olympians are not tearing the stars and stripes from their uniforms, nor condemning America as illegitimate. The Team USA athletes are speaking out because they still can (although the administration’s hostile approach to free speech does not bode well for the future).

Hunter Hess, the skier who found himself in Trump’s crosshairs, followed up with another message after the president’s Truth Social tantrum:

There is so much that is great about America, but there are always things that could be better. One of the many things that makes this country so amazing is that we have the right and the freedom to point that out.

I can think of no better credo for the American people.

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Editor’s Note: Since the end of December, Iranians have been taking to the streets to protest a corrupt, theocratic regime that has doled out abuse after abuse against them for nearly half a century.

In recent weeks, Americans have become (re-)acquainted with the vicious treatment the Iranian regime reserves for its own people. International headlines tout casualty figures in the tens of thousands while the Iranian authorities shroud the country in a nationwide telecommunications blackout.

What media coverage often skips over, however, is that the Islamic Republic of Iran has also destroyed lives across the Middle East and farther afield. Iran has propped up dictators and terrorists in Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Gaza. The Russian military menaces Ukrainian civilians with Iranian weapons.

Iranians braving bullets and batons are not only fighting for their own freedom. They are fighting for the entire world.

One of our principles at The Next Move is to fill in strategic blind spots by connecting the dots. To showcase the globe-spanning consequences of the protests in Iran, The Next Move has assembled a unique slate of distinguished authors: one Iranian, one Palestinian, one Israeli, one Yemeni, and one Ukrainian. We asked them each to consider what a free Iran would mean.

Their analysis is at once clear-eyed and inspiring. As people who know the arbitrary violence of the Islamic Republic firsthand, these writers understand that those who aspire to democracy in Iran face an uphill battle. But they also speak to the need for fundamental change. A world with a free Iran would be a better world—a freer, more secure world indeed.

As always, thank you for your support and readership. We look forward to continuing the conversation in the comments and on our next premium subscriber Zoom call.

— Garry Kasparov
Founder & Chairman, Renew Democracy Initiative

— Evan Gottesman
Managing Editor, The Next Move

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An Iranian Perspective: Freedom Is a Necessity Like Air

Marina Nemat is the author of Prisoner of Tehran and After Tehran: A Life Reclaimed, published in thirty countries. She has received various international awards and has given talks at high schools, universities, and conferences worldwide. Her next book, Mistress of the Persian Boarding House, will be published in summer 2026 by Penguin Random House Canada.

For Iranians living in the country, a free and democratic Iran is not a want or dream; it is a necessity like air.

Images of mass murder have flooded news outlets and social media as the Iranian regime turns against its own people. Iranians want to be free of the Islamic Republic, a brutal dictatorship that has massacred them for 47 years, and I have a feeling of terrifying déjà vu.

Within a year of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979, many of us were already on the streets protesting. We saw that Ayatollah Khomeini had no intention to keep his promises about making the lives of Iranians better than they had been during the time of the shah. Even though we had no political freedoms before the revolution, we had personal ones; now the ayatollah was in the process of making the hijab mandatory for women when I had grown up dancing to the Bee Gees while wearing a bikini on the beach. The Revolutionary Guard attacked every protest rally I attended in the 1980s. We were shot at. Many died. Others were arrested.

I spent more than two years in Evin Prison and was tortured and raped. I was just shy of 19 when I was released, devastated and broken.

The people of Iran are still dying on the streets not only because they want freedom, but because they can’t put food on the table. The Revolutionary Guard has spread its tentacles into every aspect of Iranian life; they now practically own Iran’s economy. For them, money and power have been flowing in ceaselessly, and they don’t care how much blood they shed to keep it coming. Iranians are hostages of their own government. Today, those who protest—hundreds of thousands—know very well that they face a high likelihood of a violent death, yet they still take to the streets. All hope has been snuffed out, and Iranians forced into a deadly corner, so they feel they might as well die standing with their heads held high.

Iran has been forced under the murky waters of cruelty and evil for decades, and it has completely run out of breath. Iranians are at a point where they are not risking their lives to make things better, they are fighting for their lives, for survival.

A Palestinian Perspective: The Road to a Free Palestine Runs Through a Free Iran

Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Palestinian-American from Gaza. He is the founder and director of the Realign for Palestine project at the Atlantic Council, which publishes The Radical Pragmatist on Substack.

For Palestinians, the Islamic Republic of Iran has been like a bad friend who lets you drive drunk. The regime in Tehran enables and empowers the worst elements of Palestinian society, funding and arming groups like Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad—terrorists who oppress our people and pursue a strategy of perpetual, unwinnable war with Israel. We know that Iranian officials were involved in the planning of the October 7 attacks, which triggered the most catastrophic chapter in Palestinian history.

Through nearly half a century, the ayatollahs have used Palestinians as a political prop to justify the destruction of countless lives across the Middle East. The expeditionary arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards is called the Quds Force, literally, the “Jerusalem Force.” In the name of the Palestinian people, the Quds Force has committed terrible crimes in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen, earning it a designation as a terrorist organization by the United States and Canada.

It does not have to be this way.

Imagine a democratic Iran. A liberated Iran would not need foreign adventures to distract from its theocratic rule. The new Iran would cut off Hamas and offshoots like PIJ. Instead of an exchange of arms and corrosive ideologies, the Iran-Palestine relationship could become an exchange of knowledge and practical ideas. Iran’s society is an educated one, and the country produces more engineers than any other in our region. Palestinians could benefit from their expertise and partnership in rebuilding Gaza’s ruined landscape and infrastructure.

Iran, reborn as a successful Middle Eastern democracy, could also offer a model for Palestinians building a future state and national project.

With the Islamic Republic gone, the Iranian missile and nuclear issue would be struck from the Israeli domestic political agenda. Palestinians would have an opening to peacefully force the question of a two-state solution and an end to decades of Israeli military occupation.

The brave protesters on the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran are doing more for the Palestinian cause than any kalashnikov-toting thug in the Qassam Brigades ever will. The road to a free Palestine runs through a free Iran.

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An Israeli Perspective: We Are Not The Enemy of the Iranian People

Ksenia Svetlova is a former member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset. She previously worked as a journalist and reported from Syria, Libya, Egypt, Gaza, and the West Bank. Ksenia is currently executive director of the Regional Organization for Peace, Economics, and Security.

In recent weeks, Iranian protestors have displayed visceral courage to oppose an oppressive regime. And yet, a sober geopolitical assessment suggests we are no closer to a definitive breaking point than we were before the unrest began. The clerical regime remains entrenched, maintaining its suffocating grip through a combination of brutal repression and a calculated internet blackout. It is a persistent tragedy for a nation of 90 million people—a country of immense cultural and economic potential that continues to be choked by the ideological obsessions of its leaders.

Yet, it is remarkably easy to envision a different future for Iran and its supposed “eternal enemy,” Israel. If the Islamic Republic were to give way to a government focused on national healing and economic restoration rather than the export of Islamic revolution, the Middle East would undergo a seismic recalibration. A new Iran, seeking normalized relations with the world, would fundamentally change the regional security architecture.

The most immediate shift would be in bilateral relations. If Tehran ceased prioritizing the destruction of Israel, we would likely see the resumption of direct flights and trade—features of a pre-1979 era. For Israel, the “day after” would offer a massive peace dividend, potentially allowing for a significant reduction in defense spending currently earmarked for the Iranian threat. Even a transactional, non-hostile relationship would represent a monumental upgrade from the current doctrine of “wiping Israel from the map.”

Furthermore, the Iranian web of proxies would face immediate systemic failure. While the Houthis might retain a localized grip on power in Yemen, their capacity to project force with ballistic missiles would vanish without Tehran’s technical support. Hezbollah, Hamas, and Iraqi militias—deprived of their financial and political lifelines—would see their influence shrink toward domestic irrelevance. Groups like Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which function purely as Iranian satellites, would likely disappear altogether. This vacuum would grant nations like Lebanon and Iraq a historic opportunity to reclaim their sovereignty from foreign subversion.

A future post-Islamic Republic-Iran will undoubtedly remain a regional powerhouse with its own strategic interests and desire for independence. However, such a state would operate through diplomacy and economic alliances rather than subversion. Millions of Iranians already recognize that Israel is not inevitably their enemy; they understand that the regime has used the “Zionist threat” as a red herring to distract from its own domestic failures. A peaceful, integrated future for both nations is possible—provided the current regime finally gives way to the will of its people.

A Yemeni Perspective: Don’t Let the Houthi Monster Outlive Its Creator

Fatima Abo Alasrar is the founder of the Ideology Machine Project and a senior policy analyst at the Washington Center for Yemeni Studies.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has entered its final act. By turning its guns on its own people, Tehran has traded its future for a temporary, blood-soaked stability, a move that ensures its eventual collapse under the weight of its own injustice. Yet, as the sun sets on the mullahs, the West is making a fatal miscalculation: assuming the shadow falls with the man. In Yemen, the Houthis—the Iran-sponsored group that gained international notoriety for their Red Sea priracy—have never been more physically vulnerable. The Houthis’ cabinets are gutted by airstrikes, and their patrons are paralyzed by domestic survival. Yet, they have also never been more ideologically permanent.

If status quo thinking prevails in Washington, the Houthis will easily outlive their patrons in Tehran. Tehran’s investment has created a political Frankenstein, a creature that has developed its own pulse and no longer needs its creator to survive.

This was by design. For years, Tehran denied supporting the militia to cultivate the group’s image as an autonomous, indigenous force. While the missiles and drones that the Revolutionary Guards supply matter, they are ultimately replaceable. What will be more challenging to undo is the ideological infrastructure Iran spent a decade embedding into the structures of North Yemen.

This system of indoctrination is now so deeply rooted in areas under Houthi control in northern Yemen that it operates independently of Tehran’s direct control. The Houthis have even evolved the faiths of their forefathers to align with a localized version of Khomeinism. They created an Islamic Republic of Iran in miniature, replicating Iran’s cult of martyrdom and its professionalized instrumentalization of grievance. They’ve built the schools, media apparatus, and social control mechanisms modeled on Iran’s script.

September 21, 2014, the day the Houthis seized Sanaa, was Yemen’s 1979. It birthed a revolutionary project that has transformed a generation. Children who were toddlers when the capital fell are now teenagers conscripted into a worldview that posits jihad as a civic duty and hatred as moral clarity. The slogan on their flag, “Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews”, is no longer a chant. It is a catechism.

The international community still sees the Houthis as a local problem. They are not. They control the Red Sea’s chokepoints. They have proven they can strike deep into Israel. Russia launders their image through propaganda campaigns. China cuts quiet deals for safe passage through the Red Sea. Meanwhile, Washington bled resources on defensive naval patrols.

Right now, the Houthis are fragile. Israeli strikes shattered their mythology of invulnerability. Their leadership is paranoid. But instead of pressing this advantage, the West retreats into the familiar comfort of “stability.” UN envoys pursue dialogue with a group that only understands force. When the Islamic Republic dies, the Houthi monster will not necessarily follow its maker into the grave. If we are not careful, we will be the ones keeping the threat alive.

A Ukrainian Perspective: Russian Oil, Iranian Weapons

Oleh Dunda is a member of the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, where he is co-chair of the Inter-parliamentary Association For the Decolonization of Russia. Dunda is a regular participant in international security forums including the Warsaw Security Forum, the Vilnius Security Forum, the Berlin Forum, and the Parliamentary Intelligence-Security Forum.

The Free World has been watching recent protests in Iran with attention and excitement. Ukrainians in particular know that this conflict is not as distant as it may appear. Events in Iran could be of key importance for Ukrainian and global security for one simple reason: Iran’s oil reserves are among the largest in the world.

These oil reserves directly and indirectly influence the bloody events unfolding across the globe. On the one hand, illicit oil sales allow the ayatollah’s regime to directly finance various terrorist proxies in the Middle East. On the other, Iran’s relative isolation allows Russia to benefit from Brent oil prices at $60-70 per barrel on world markets. These dynamics persist because of Tehran’s unwillingness to change and become part of the global economy, which would result in the development of the Iranian oil industry.

In the long term, the establishment of a democratic government in Iran could bring the country into the world economic system, lowering oil prices, and denying Russia a critical revenue stream, thus hastening Moscow’s defeat in Ukraine. This is on top of the immediate benefit for the Iranian people: stopping the killing in Iran and establishing a stable peace in the Middle East.

The fall of the Iranian regime would also be a significant political loss for Russia, which has already seen authoritarian clients overthrown in Venezuela and Syria. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin and the Islamic Republic have grown significantly closer. Iran supplied Russia with Shahed attack drones, which were hurled against our cities. The Iranian regime also reportedly sent ammunition and artillery to Russian forces. Russia and Iran are increasingly aligned politically in their anti-Western stance. The Islamic Republic’s fall would expose Russia’s weakness to the world.

But how can the fall of the ayatollah be achieved? The world should not watch Iranian protests and assume that the day is already won. Any wrong move in relation to Iran could lead to chaos and further violence instead of a more open society. Turmoil could spread to other authoritarian countries in the Persian Gulf, whose stability and sustainability are exaggerated. Further conflict in the Middle East would lead to a crisis in the oil market and an increase in Russia’s oil revenues. As a result, autocrats would gain at the expense of freedom-loving Iranians, Ukrainians, and others fighting for democracy around the world.

These challenges alone make it clear that resolving the issue of a democratic Iran could take a great deal of time and resources. The world should remain invested in events in Iran, for their development will affect the Middle East, Ukraine, and beyond. The situation in Iran is complex. It cannot be resolved with a cavalry charge overnight nor through a single air strike.

But the potential benefits of a democratic Iran carry global significance that makes them well worth fighting for: for the Iranian people, for Ukrainians, for Americans, and for all those who share their values.

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Masih Alinejad is an American-Iranian women’s rights activist and journalist. She is a Frontline Fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative (publisher of The Next Move), the founder of My Stealthy Freedom and United Against Gender Apartheid, and the co-founder of the World Liberty Congress. The Iranian government has targeted Masih in multiple kidnapping and assassination plots on US soil.

In 2009, millions of Iranians poured into the streets during the Green Movement to protest the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They carried banners and placards calling for a fair vote. The Islamic Republic answered those peaceful protests with baton charges, bullets, mass arrests, show trials, executions, and long prison sentences.

The regime survived but that cycle of resistance and repression has been repeated a number of times. Each successive episode was sparked by a specific grievance before rapidly morphing into a referendum on a system that is beyond reform.

Today, a new wave of protests—the largest since the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” uprising—is rocking the country. The Islamic Republic has responded with bullets. Police have opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing more than 45 people and injuring hundreds. The regime has imposed a nationwide digital blackout and cut phone lines in an attempt to rupture the Iranian people’s connection to the rest of the world. In the city of Ilam, in western Iran, security forces entered a hospital to hunt for dissidents, firing their guns, using tear gas, and assaulting people with batons.

Nearly sixteen years after the Green Movement, we are witnessing the fifth major wave of anti-regime protests. Workers, students, women, and activists have been through previous protests before. Despite seeming failure and the punishments, they never gave up. Free people choose freedom.

This is why Washington’s choices matter.

In 2009, President Barack Obama made the mistake of staying mute as the regime crushed protesters Instead of supporting the people, he wrote secret letters to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, because he wanted a nuclear deal.

In 2022, Obama expressed regret for not offering stronger support for the Green Movement. Yet the same strategic assumptions that informed Obama’s misguided policy persisted under the Biden administration, most visibly by granting the regime access to billions of dollars in sanctions relief at a time when it was not only intensifying domestic repression, but also carrying out transnational assassination plots against dissidents (including this author) and US officials on American soil.

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That mixed track record may have lulled the Islamic Republic into believing it could continue to get away with murder after Donald Trump returned to office last year. If the ayatollahs assumed that the White House was too busy with Ukraine, Venezuela, and Gaza to pay attention to the most recent protests, they were in for a rude awakening.

Rather than keeping silent, President Trump threatened to intervene if the regime cracked down violently on the protests. He signaled that he is not going to treat Iranian protesters as inconvenient background noise while chasing a “grand bargain” with Tehran.

“If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” the president posted on social media. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Yesterday, Trump doubled down on his threat, reporting that “I have let [the regim] know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots … we’re going to hit them very hard.”

Trump’s post has emboldened the protesters (whom he’s described as “brave people”) who initially took to the streets to complain about the Islamic Republic’s dysfunctional economy—beset, as it is, by corruption, nepotism and mismanagement.

Indeed, it was shopkeepers and merchants in Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, at Alaeddin Passage and Charsou Mall, the beating heart of the city’s mobile phone and electronics trade, that closed their shops in protest.

That detail matters. The bazaar isn’t just an economic institution in Iran; it’s a political barometer. Bazaaris helped drive the Constitutional Revolution of 1906 and played a pivotal role in the upheavals that culminated in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. When the bazaar closes, it signals a rupture in the regime’s governing coalition.

These merchants are among the first hit when the currency collapses. Their goods are priced in dollars and imported. When the rial collapses, they can’t restock inventory, can’t predict prices, and can’t keep contracts. Commerce freezes because people cannot calculate what anything is worth.

The monetary meltdown is staggering. Iran’s rial has hit repeated record lows on the open market, with reports of prices falling to as low as 1.47 million rials to the dollar in early January.

With inflation sitting around the 40% range (and higher by some measures) this is a crisis that had been long in coming. The rial’s sharp deterioration accelerated after the June 2025 Iran-Israel conflict, the so-called “12-Day War” that saw Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commanders killed and nuclear enrichment facilities pulverized.

But that war was a catalyst, not the root cause. The deeper problem is structural: The Islamic Republic runs an economy designed for patronage, not prosperity. Khamenei’s the richest man in Iranian history and uses that wealth to not only spread terror but buy off peace within his regime. The system is kept afloat by hidden subsidies and opaque accounts; when revenue falls short the regime prints more money. That pushes inflation higher, weakens the rial further, and drives more people into dollars, gold, and anything that doesn’t evaporate overnight.

This crisis is therefore political and not financial. The regime is resorting to force but that only delays change. Repression cannot restore legitimacy.

Hemingway had a line about going bankrupt: “gradually, then suddenly.” Dictatorships die the same way: They rot slowly, and then collapse suddenly. After each wave of protest, we are getting closer to the sudden part

What is Washington to do? President Trump has so far not fallen for the fantasy that quiet diplomacy will somehow reform the Islamic Republic. The swift removal of Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro over the weekend demonstrates that the US is not afraid to eject entrenched despots from their thrones.

Instead, the White House should take three simple steps.

First, the administration can get Elon Musk to provide more Starlinks for Iranians. Internet access is an engine for democratic resistance; this is why the Islamic Republic and other dictatorships restrict it. Mobilizing Starlinks will allow Iranians to share news, document atrocities, and organize resistance.

Next, the US should expel Iranian diplomats from the country and cancel their visas (Iran maintains a mission to the United Nations in New York).

Lastly, the United States should warn regime officials that anyone ordering the killing of protesters will be pursued and dealt with in the same manner as IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani during Trump’s first term or Nicolas Maduro this past weekend.

Iranians are making clear that they are not bargaining to reform the regime. They do not want one set of demagogues traded for another. They want a new form of government, based on democracy and rule of law. They are demanding a regime change.

An Iran without the Islamic Republic would guarantee stability for its own people, peace for the region, and greater security for the world anchored in democracy and the rule of law. Beyond words, this moment requires action.

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Jay Nordlinger is a senior resident fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative and a contributor at The Next Move.

My guest in this new podcast is Otto Reich, “a veteran foreign-policy hand and an old friend of mine.” I have quoted my introduction.

That introduction continues as follows:

Under Reagan and Bush 41, he was U.S. ambassador to Venezuela. Under Bush 43, he was assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.

Mr. Reich was born in Cuba. “Otto Reich” is not a typical Cuban name. His father, Walter Reich, escaped Austria over the Alps. The rest of the family was murdered. Eventually, this young man, Walter Reich, found his way to Havana—that is an interesting story.

The Communists took over Cuba in 1959—New Year’s Day. The family did not wait very long to flee. Walter Reich had had his experience in Europe.

At the end of our podcast, I ask Otto to talk a bit about his family.

The podcast is mainly about Venezuela, however—a country that Otto knows well. We go over some basic questions.

What should one make of the US operation in Venezuela?

Is it strange to extract a dictator while leaving the dictatorship in place? Is this “dictator change” rather than “regime change”?

What about Venezuelan nationalism, and Latin American nationalism more broadly? Will trying a leader—even a brute such as Maduro—in the United States inflame it?

Should rulers in Cuba and Nicaragua be nervous?

In late November, President Trump pardoned a major-league drug-trafficker, Juan Orlando Hernández, a former president of Honduras. Now we are prosecuting another one?

There are 8 or 9 million Venezuelans in exile. If Venezuela improves, or returns to democracy outright, will those people go home?

If we are back to “spheres of influence” and “might makes right,” what does that portend for Ukraine and Taiwan?

It is a great pleasure to talk with my old friend, Otto Reich. He is a Reagan conservative and a democrat through and through. That he is an anti-Communist goes without saying. Also, two of his early jobs brought him into close proximity with two military dictators: Somoza and Pinochet. He avoided shaking the hand of either.

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January 6 was a strategic victory for authoritarianism.

Yes, the mob was ultimately repulsed. Yes, Mike Pence certified the votes. Yes, Joe Biden was inaugurated.

But Donald Trump was never held accountable. On the contrary, the fallout from January 6 probably made him more popular. On the fifth anniversary of the Capitol insurrection, Trump, its chief inciter, is back in the White House, less restrained than last time. If not treated quickly and comprehensively, the antidemocratic virus adapts and comes back stronger.

In post-Soviet Russia, we teetered on the brink of democracy.

Yet there was no reckoning over the communist past. No tribunal or commission to dispense justice for decades of crimes against humanity. Many of the old party elites simply rebranded, joined by a new cadre of oligarchic power brokers. Despite having a similar political pedigree, our neighbors in Ukraine managed a peaceful transition of power in 1994. Russia never did. Today, a KGB agent is the most firmly entrenched Russian dictator since Joseph Stalin.

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That was Russia. At the very least, no one was looking to Moscow as a beacon of liberty.

But when the president attempts a self-coup in America?

Then the virus—untreated, uncontrolled—becomes especially contagious.

My appeal to Americans on the fifth anniversary of the insurrection is not another empty admonishment to never forget. Those who have forgotten have done so consciously.

Instead, I am calling on my American friends to embrace your destiny as a nation. The United States is the blueprint that so many others follow—whether in the right direction or the wrong one. Many countries’ constitutions and declarations of independence have been written on the American model. Yet demagogues the world over have also emulated your leaders’ worst habits.

As a matter of political reality and historic providence, you have a special responsibility. Create a world that embodies the spirit of 1776, not January 6.

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Here at The Next Move, we don’t just rattle off think pieces. We take action.

In December, our publisher, the Renew Democracy Initiative, put on the third annual Frontlines of Freedom Conference, bringing together dissidents from around the world alongside American leaders in business, policy, and the arts. We had senators, activists, even a TikTok star and Tony Award-winning Broadway actor.

The point? Build a coalition of people who’ve risked everything for freedom, amplify their voices, sharpen their stories, and bring home the stakes of this fight to an American audience that takes democracy for granted.

This isn’t theoretical. RDI Frontline Fellows—democracy advocates who persevered under the world’s harshest dictatorships—have already reached thousands of students, business leaders, and public officials.

Watch the video and find out more about what we’re doing offline. And if you’re interested in working together, drop us a line.

Want to help support our dissident network and get something back for it? Give a loved one—or yourself—the gift of a Next Move premium subscription this holiday season. All proceeds from The Next Move go to support the work of the Renew Democracy Initiative. Through December 31, 2025, we’re offering 30% off a premium subscription. Anyone signed up by the New Year will be automatically entered to win one of five chess sets autographed by Garry Kasparov, and premium subscribers have access to exclusive content and interactive Zoom calls with Garry and other pro-democracy leaders.

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Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib is a Palestinian-American from Gaza. He is the founder and director of the Realign for Palestine project at the Atlantic Council, which publishes The Radical Pragmatist on Substack.

What does it mean to be a dissident from Palestine?

This past week, the Renew Democracy Initiative put together a gathering for dissidents from around the world titled Frontlines of Freedom Conference, showcasing how advocates from different corners of the Earth battle with tyrannies and transnationally oppressive forces that are regressing human progress and prosperity.

I was honored to speak alongside Rushan Abbas, a Uyghur activist and entrepreneur whose work in the United States cost her family members dearly at the hands of Chinese authorities, and Mu Sochua, a Cambodian politician and human rights activist who is a senior opposition figure working to overcome a repressive political environment in her homeland.

I spoke about Hamas in Gaza and the challenges facing Palestinian activists in the Strip. Those Palestinian voices are often dismissed by international human rights advocates, democracy activists, and other dissidents because of the nearly-exclusive focus on the Israeli dimension of the conflict, without understanding the internal dynamics of Palestinian society.

But Hamas in Gaza is a human rights issue.

There are numerous Palestinian dissidents against the terror groups’ fascist rule and control of the population. They deserve our support and empowerment.

It pains me that much of the international human rights community has been willing to give Hamas a pass. It all points to an inability to truly hold multiple truths at once: To address Israel’s actions while holding Palestinian groups accountable for their crimes.

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Hamas is a disaster for the Palestinian people and their national project for freedom and independence; Hamas has brought so much devastation and regression to Palestinian society; Hamas squandered decades, tens of billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of Palestinian lives for absolutely nothing.

Gaza is indeed a frontline for the fight of an entire people to be free from the grip of a fascist, terrorist organization, as the first necessary step to emancipate them from Israeli control and military occupation.

There is no Palestinian freedom without freedom from Hamas first and foremost, and freedom from the violence and Jihadi “resistance” rhetoric and narrative that the Islamist group represents.

The fight for Palestinian rights takes a lot more than simply being anti-Israel, even if one is furious with Israeli actions and policies against the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank.

Put simply: Palestinian dissidents in Gaza deserve international recognition and support.

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Scores of dissidents from around the world, a Tony-winning Broadway actor, a TikTok superstar, a retired three-star general, a Hollywood executive, a Republican national security adviser, and two Democratic senators walk into a DC hotel.

This isn’t the setup to a bad joke. It’s the premise of the Renew Democracy Initiative’s Frontlines of Freedom Conference (FOFCON).

People flew into Washington, DC from as far as Europe and California for just three days to be a part of this event.

Why?

The answer is that many people are worried about the future of democracy, but they want to fight as part of a community. They love freedom, liberty, and the flourishing that comes with it, yet, as Garry told his fellow dissidents on Monday, “there are powerful incentives to stay quiet.”

We don’t begrudge anyone their concern, or even fear. Speaking up carries real consequences in many countries. The US was once a model for those who couldn’t speak freely in their home countries. Uriel’s mom would often recall how she left the USSR and ultimately came to America so that she could speak without having to look over her shoulder.

A few years ago, people started looking over their shoulders. First, it was for fear of social consequences—”cancellation.” In the last year, the threats to free speech have increasingly come directly from the US government.

Senator Mark Kelly—one of a growing number of Americans made the target of political retaliation—brought this point into sharp relief on the last day of the conference:

I want to make sure that no one in this country perceives that I am backing off one inch. Because if I do that, if they perceive that—they will know that if Trump can go after a senator, he can go after them next.

No one fights alone at RDI. We are building a coalition to fight for the universal values of freedom, liberty, and democracy, a team that cuts across every segment of society—even including people you wouldn’t traditionally find at a conference in the heart of the swamp.

There is strength in numbers and in unity of purpose.

That’s why, just this week, CNN’s Erin Burnett called the Frontlines of Freedom Conference “the biggest gathering of the top political dissidents in the world.”

The battle between the forces of freedom and tyranny might make sense to Americans in the abstract. Yet bringing it home and really rousing people to action can be difficult.

Accordingly, the Frontlines of Freedom Conference places an emphasis on dissident voices. And this year, we focused on sharpening the stories of the people who have persevered under the world’s harshest dictatorships.

It’s one thing to hear yet another American talking head opine about this country’s political malaise, but, as Garry put it at the start of Tuesday’s session: “being shoved into the back of a Russian police van gives you a different perspective on freedom.”

Of course, even the most compelling story will not move the needle without an audience. But our stories are going viral. Major influencers joined us in DC. More than half a million people have already seen FOFCON on social media, and our conference was covered on CNN and C-SPAN.

In the new year, we’ll be sharing more stories. Making our big tent even bigger.

We invite you to join us.

Bring a dissident to your campus, community, boardroom, or newsroom. RDI’s Frontline Fellows have already reached thousands, and we’ve placed them in dissident-in-residence positions at universities like Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, and Dartmouth.

If you know someone whose voice belongs on this platform, let’s connect. If they don’t resemble a conventional politico, all the better—they’re not unwelcome, just unexpected. If they come from a place most Americans rarely think about, that’s exactly why their story matters.

Freedom is the greatest generator of human prosperity the world has ever known. FOFCON was exhilarating, even inspiring—but let’s be honest: it’d be nice if we could just relax and enjoy the prosperity freedom has given us.

But freedom isn’t self-maintaining. It’s a muscle. Stop using it, and it weakens. Use it—especially when it’s hard—and it strengthens.

At the conference’s final session on Wednesday, Senator Peter Welch captured the moment perfectly. We couldn’t think of a better way to capture RDI’s call to action:

We don’t pick the times we’re in. We decide how to be in those times. We decide whether we’re going to stand up for our values because we believe in them.

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From a Tony Award-winning actor training political dissidents in storytelling to impassioned conversations about freedom of speech and immigration, we’re coming off of two days of incredibly successful workshops and discussions at our Frontlines of Freedom Conference.

To cap off this year’s conference, we’re excited to host a conversation tomorrow (Wednesday, December 10) between Garry Kasparov and Senators Mark Kelly and Peter Welch—right in the heart of the action in Washington, DC.

We believe everyone should have the opportunity to engage with their leaders, and tomorrow is about that principle. Thanks to the generosity of RDI’s supporters, we’re opening up tomorrow’s session with Senators Kelly and Welch to our network free of charge.

We have a few seats remaining for tomorrow’s conversation, so don’t wait to register.

Join RDI in DC

Can’t join us in DC? Tune in on Zoom at the link below.

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I delivered this speech this morning to the attendees of RDI’s Frontlines of Freedom Conference in Washington, DC. Tomorrow, I’ll be joined by Senators Mark Kelly and Peter Welch to cap off the conference. If you’d like to join us, we still have a few spots remaining.

Don’t wait to register! Click here to sign up, and I hope to see you in DC.

It’s become popular—especially in the last ten years—to refer to Washington, DC as “the swamp.”

Nearly 200 years ago, a young Frenchman you may have heard of—Alexis de Tocqueville—had an even less flattering description of this nation’s capital.

“An arid plain scorched by the sun.”

De Tocqueville continued, “Unless one is Alexander or Peter the Great, one should not get involved in creating the capital of an empire.”

So here we are, in an arid plain! We bring you all to the nicest places.

De Tocqueville may not have been terribly fond of this city but he forged a deep appreciation of American freedom. In the early nineteenth century, he crossed the Atlantic from Europe to travel all around the young United States. He recorded his observations in the timeless volume we know as Democracy in America.

Can you name any other political books from the 1830s? Maybe a handful of you—this is probably the most informed crowd you can gather. But in general, probably not. Why is Alexis de Tocqueville part of the American popular political imagination?

The answer is that the author was French, and not American.

In de Tocqueville’s day, France had been rocked by two revolutions and the rise and fall of an empire in just over forty years. He was an outsider in the early US—both in the literal sense, as a foreigner, and because his experience was so vastly different from the relatively tranquil lives of most Americans.

The Renew Democracy Initiative is a Tocquevillian exercise. Turn on any cable news network, and can hear many intelligent and passionate Americans opine about their feelings on the state of the union. There is nothing wrong with that, and we will hear from many such American patriots over the course of the next two days.

But in order to truly stand out, we need to bring in that outsider vantage, that mirror on American democracy. Speaking for myself, being shoved into the back of a Russian police van gives you a different perspective on freedom than being born into it. And as dissident experiences go under dictatorship, mine was relatively mild. Most Americans aren’t aware of this.

The great political battle now is the battle for the narrative. Dictators are reaching across borders to silence their critics in the supposed safe haven of the United States. Their thugs harass, surveil—and in the case of my friend Masih Alinejad, even attempt to murder—those who dare to speak up. And these regimes’ media fixers and lobbyists work overtime to convince Americans to look the other way.

Closer to home, extremists in the US on the far-left and far-right produce slick videos and blast them out to millions of followers. The instrument of political control will be a podcast, not a putsch.

In this environment, we must be able to telegraph the urgency of our pro-democracy message above the noise.

This is the role of the Renew Democracy Initiative. This is why we have rallied over 100 political dissidents from more than 40 different repressive countries under the banner of the Frontlines of Freedom program. This is why we have convened this Frontlines of Freedom Conference. To serve as de Tocquevilles for the twenty-first century.

We spent yesterday working with dissidents to sharpen their stories, to help them break through into the American public consciousness and advance freedom in this country and around the world. Now, over the next two days, we’ll be bringing our dissident community together with RDI’s broader coalition of leaders in media, business, and public service. Thank you all for joining us in this “arid plain.” I’m looking forward to telling the story of freedom together with you.

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The Next Move thrives on debate, but we share one mission: strengthening democracy and challenging authoritarianism. Join us December 9–10, 2025, in Washington, DC, for the Renew Democracy Initiative’s third annual Frontlines of Freedom Conference (FOFCON). This in-person gathering unites dissidents, business and academic leaders, journalists, and advocates to build a culture of freedom. We’ll examine how authoritarians exploit issues like immigration, how to protect campuses and businesses from intimidation, and hear from people who stood up for liberty under repressive regimes. New this year, we’ll also be bringing FOFCON’s insights directly to Capitol Hill.

Join RDI in DC

To get you in the FOFCON spirit, we’re publishing podcast interviews from RDI Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger featuring the courageous dissidents who will be joining us in DC next month. In this episode, Jay is joined by RDI Frontline Fellow and Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad. Masih discusses the reality of life under the Islamic Republic, the regime’s assault on women’s rights, its efforts to silence her, and the brave Iranians risking everything. She emphasizes the importance of denouncing the regime—not the people of Iran—and the power of solidarity.

Let us know what you think and join us in DC next week for FOFCON!

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The Next Move thrives on debate, but we share one mission: strengthening democracy and challenging authoritarianism. Join us December 9–10, 2025, in Washington, DC, for the Renew Democracy Initiative’s third annual Frontlines of Freedom Conference (FOFCON). This in-person gathering unites dissidents, business and academic leaders, journalists, and advocates to build a culture of freedom. We’ll examine how authoritarians exploit issues like immigration, how to protect campuses and businesses from intimidation, and hear from people who stood up for liberty under repressive regimes. New this year, we’ll also be bringing FOFCON’s insights directly to Capitol Hill.

Join RDI in DC

To get you in the FOFCON spirit, we’re publishing podcast interviews from RDI Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger featuring the courageous dissidents who will be joining us in DC next month. In this episode, RDI Frontline Fellow David Smolansky reflects on life in exile, the dangers of populists who use democracy to dismantle it, and his powerful vision for democracy and freedom in Venezuela.

Let us know what you think, stay tuned for the next installment, and join us in DC this December!

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There is a lot that I love about America. Thanksgiving is one of the things I love the most.

More than any other date on the calendar, Thanksgiving reminds us what we supporters of liberty are really fighting for.

“More than the Fourth of July?” You might ask. “More than the date on which we commemorate American democracy, freedom, and independence?”

Yes, more than the Fourth of July.

Democracy, freedom—politics, too. These are not ends in and of themselves. They are a vehicle for delivering human happiness and flourishing. That goal is what we’re fighting for.

The notion of a free society is abstract. Thanksgiving celebrates abundance, and abundance is tangible. You can taste it. Smell it. Hear it. The turkey and mashed potatoes on your plate, the chatter with loved ones, whom you’re free to visit—these are the fruits of a free society.

President Abraham Lincoln formally consecrated Thanksgiving as a national holiday in the middle of the Civil War. His proclamation is full of vivid imagery of America’s bounty. Lincoln opens by recalling that…

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.

He continues:

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.

Speaking of abundance, you may have heard the story of Boris Yeltsin’s visit to an American supermarket.

It was September 1989. Yeltsin had been installed as a member of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR just a few months earlier. He took a tour of Johnson Space Center. I’m sure he was impressed, but the Soviet Union had rockets and even an imitation space shuttle too.

But the Soviet Union did not have abundance like America did.

On the way back from Johnson Space Center, Yeltsin asked to visit a supermarket. The store was given only minutes notice that a senior Soviet dignitary would be dropping in.

Yeltsin wandered the aisles, amazed at the variety and volume of products, colorful popsicles and frozen treats; plentiful produce; all painting a stark contrast to dreary communist scarcity. Yeltsin’s associates and biographers describe the transformative impact of the grocery pit stop. It further convinced the future Russian president of the brokenness of the Soviet system.

The store Yeltsin visited was a medium-sized outpost of Randalls—a Texas grocery chain. In America, there are and were far more palatial supermarkets. One wonders how Yeltsin might have reacted to the vastness of a Costco or the opulence of an Erewhon.

But in September 1989, an unremarkable local supermarket was sufficient to capture Yeltsin’s imagination. Eight weeks after Yeltsin’s visit, that Randalls location was undoubtedly crowded with Americans stocking their kitchens for Thanksgiving.

Years before Yeltsin’s trip to Texas, I had my own “American supermarket moment”—actually several—when I experienced, viscerally, the difference between free and unfree.

As a top chess player, I enjoyed privileges my neighbors in the Soviet Union could not even dream of.

I got to travel to Western democracies to compete. Assuming they even had the means to travel, a Soviet citizen could count themselves as extremely fortunate if they got approval for a holiday in Bulgaria. I was playing chess in places like New York, London, Paris, and Amsterdam.

Of course, that freedom was conditional: Before I turned 20, the KGB would not allow my mother to travel abroad with me to competitions, essentially holding her in the USSR as human collateral to discourage defection (remember what I said about the ability to freely visit loved ones?).

The only chess title I never won was the under-16 championship. I tried, first in 1976, and then again the following year. The competition took place in northern France. My mother, always an essential, supportive presence at my matches back home, was replaced by a state-appointed coach. I was a 13 year-old kid from Baku, on the fringes of the Soviet empire, with only a stranger as my company in a strange land. It was a deeply uncomfortable experience, and I just couldn’t manage the win.

Still, the Soviet authorities could not hold a blindfold over my eyes. I, too, was exposed to the fruits of a free society, and from a much younger age than Boris Yeltsin.

In France, I met a family who would cross the border into Belgium each morning to buy milk (and they were confident there would be milk readily available to buy!). That shattered my sense of travel as a deeply proscribed activity. No commissar had to sign off on that family’s daily excursion. Free societies enable freedom of movement.

Four years later, in 1980, I was in Italy, on my way back from my first chess olympiad in Malta. During a long layover, I caught The Empire Strikes Back. It was my first experience with American cinema that hadn’t filtered a censor and a dub. What a drag to leave the theater knowing I was returning to a country where the Darth Vaders ran the show. Free societies foster creative expression; unfree ones force it underground or wipe it away altogether.

In 1991, in the final days of the Soviet Union, I spoke at a rally—as it happens, in support of Boris Yeltsin’s presidential campaign (we had higher hopes for him back then). I stood on Manezh Square, just beyond the Kremlin walls. I was confident; I’d been in the public eye for some time. But, standing in front of hundreds of thousands of people, I briefly found myself at a loss for words.

When I collected myself, I recounted how I’d recently been to America. There, I only saw long lines in one place: Disneyland. I told the crowd that we ought to have a country where people queued for amusement park rides and not for food.

Free societies deliver abundance.

These days, there is a lot of doom and gloom about the United States across the political spectrum. I am not talking about America’s current democratic and institutional crisis, which is indeed deathly serious. I am referring to the short-sighted ideological decay that is increasingly popular with radicals of all stripes; on the right, the perception of America as sinful, deviant, and overly tolerant. On the left, it is the view that America is criminal, colonial, illegitimate.

The exhortation to make America great again implies that America is no longer great. Far-left self-flagallation tells us it never was.

Americans would do well to discard these self-destructive narratives. It may be hard to describe what lofty concepts like democracy and freedom really mean, but you can see the rewards of those concepts all around you if you’re willing to open your eyes.

If Abraham Lincoln could find time for gratitude in the middle of a deadly Civil War, Americans today can too. If Yeltsin could be so impressed by a grocery store many Americans might consider average, then you have something to be thankful for. I’ll dispense with the caveat that America isn’t perfect (what country is?). If you are thankful for something, then you have something you can fight for.

Happy Thanksgiving.

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The Next Move thrives on debate, but we share one mission: strengthening democracy and challenging authoritarianism. Join us December 9–10, 2025, in Washington, DC, for the Renew Democracy Initiative’s third annual Frontlines of Freedom Conference (FOFCON). This in-person gathering unites dissidents, business and academic leaders, journalists, and advocates to build a culture of freedom. We’ll examine how authoritarians exploit issues like immigration, how to protect campuses and businesses from intimidation, and hear from people who stood up for liberty under repressive regimes. New this year, we’ll also be bringing FOFCON’s insights directly to Capitol Hill.

Join RDI in DC

To get you in the FOFCON spirit, we’re publishing podcast interviews from RDI Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger featuring the courageous dissidents who will be joining us in DC next month. In this episode, RDI Frontline Fellow Rushan Abbas, founder of Campaign for Uyghurs, joins Jay for an essential and powerful conversation on who the Uyghurs are, the ongoing genocide committed by the Chinese government, and what democracies and ordinary people must do to defend human rights.

Let us know what you think, stay tuned for the next installment, and join us in DC this December!

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The Next Move thrives on debate, but we share one mission: strengthening democracy and challenging authoritarianism. Join us December 9–10, 2025, in Washington, DC, for the Renew Democracy Initiative’s third annual Frontlines of Freedom Conference (FOFCON). This in-person gathering unites dissidents, business and academic leaders, journalists, and advocates to build a culture of freedom. We’ll examine how authoritarians exploit issues like immigration, how to protect campuses and businesses from intimidation, and hear from people who stood up for liberty under repressive regimes. New this year, we’ll also be bringing FOFCON’s insights directly to Capitol Hill.

Join Garry and RDI in DC

To get you in the FOFCON spirit, we’re publishing podcast interviews from RDI Senior Fellow Jay Nordlinger featuring the courageous dissidents who will be joining us in DC next month. First up is RDI’s very own Garry Kasparov, who talks about an important chess anniversary, the intersection of Russian history and democracy, Putin’s useful idiots in America, and his experience meeting Mikhail Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union.

Let us know what you think, stay tuned for the next installment, and join us in DC this December!

The board is yours! Congratulations to our raffle winners.

Forty years ago this month—November 1985—Garry Kasparov became World Chess Champion. We recently ran a contest giving subscribers a chance to win a free chess set autographed by Garry. Congratulations to our three winners! Here’s one winner, Mark Brumbaugh, with his prize.

Stay on the lookout for more raffles, plus other opportunities exclusively for paid subscribers!

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Dear reader:

At The Next Move, we argue, we disagree, but we share a fundamental cause: Strengthening democracy and putting the authoritarians on the back foot.

We’re inviting you to continue the conversation in person from December 9-10, 2025 as the Renew Democracy Initiative, publisher of The Next Move, hosts our third annual Frontlines of Freedom Conference (FOFCON) right in the heart of the action in Washington, DC.

FOFCON is about fostering a culture of freedom, and that’s something that’s best done face-to-face. This conference brings together a unique alliance of political dissidents, business leaders, academics, thought leaders, and journalists, and we want you in our coalition.

Over the course of two days, our program will look at how authoritarians exploit issues like immigration, and how rational and humane policies can defang demagogues. We’ll explore how dictators and their imitators try to bully businesses and campuses—and we’ll offer tools for leaders in education and industry to fight back.

We’ll hear from people who grew up without rights Americans take for granted, living in places like Russia and China, Latin American, and Africa, and build on their experiences.

In the coming days, RDI’s Jay Nordlinger will give you a taste of some of their stories, with podcast interviews featuring political dissidents who are joining us for FOFCON.

This year, for the first time, we’ll take the strategic lessons of our conference straight to the corridors of power, with a day focused on engaging with folks on Capitol Hill.

This is all about building a true community focused on pushing back against malign influence and building a prosperous free society. Want to get in on the action?

Register to join RDI in DC on Dec. 9-10

We hope to see you in DC this December.

Garry Kasparov
Founder & Chairman, Renew Democracy Initiative

Uriel Epshtein
CEO, Renew Democracy Initiative

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Masih Alinejad is an American-Iranian women’s rights activist and journalist. She is a Frontline Fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative, the founder of My Stealthy Freedom and United Against Gender Apartheid, and the co-founder of the World Liberty Congress.

Uriel Epshtein is the CEO of the Renew Democracy Initiative.

A lot of people throw around platitudes about loving America. But the deepest love for this country—for American liberty—comes from really understanding the alternative.

Masih Alinejad is an American-Iranian women’s rights advocate and a Frontline Fellow at the Renew Democracy Initiative (RDI). Uriel is the CEO of RDI. His parents immigrated from the Soviet Union, where his father was a political dissident.

Three years ago, the Iranian regime sent Russian mobsters to kill Masih at her Brooklyn home. She is a proud survivor, but not for lack of trying on the Islamic Republic’s part. On Wednesday, a federal judge sentenced her would-be assassins to 25 years in prison. Standing before the court just a few feet from the convicted hitmen, Masih donned a red jacket—a defiant rebuke of a dictatorship that wanted to see her bloodied.

This case is bigger than one person or one incident. Masih has been attacked by the regime before. Meanwhile, Russian intelligence services targeted Uriel in Western Europe. Too many of our colleagues share similar stories; harassed and threatened in the democratic countries that were supposed to provide them with safe haven.

There’s a fundamental principle at stake here. The US attorney put it well at Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. As he explained, the plot against Masih was so egregious because it was a foreign dictatorship’s attempt to punish an American citizen for exercising their First Amendment rights.

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America’s openness is what moved Masih to leave her life and many loved ones behind in Iran and start over. It is also what brought Uriel’s parents to these shores two decades earlier (Years ago, Uriel’s mom told him that she came to America so that she could speak without having to look over her shoulder).

The Iranian attack on Masih, the threats Uriel faced in Europe—really any threat to people’s ability to speak freely without having to worry about their safety, their freedom, or their livelihood—is an attack on one of the core promises of America.

Of course, Americans cannot and will not stand for this. As Masih fondly recalls, her neighbors in Brooklyn came together across partisan divides to support her. She knew that some of them were Republicans who had voted for Donald Trump; some were left-wing Bernie Democrats, and some were Biden Democrats. All were motivated to defend their fellow citizen’s ability to speak openly.

For Masih, the neighbors who rallied around her are only a memory now. She has had to relocate 21 times since this assassination attempt. She and her husband have been separated from their children for long periods in order to keep the family safe. Masih is alive, but to say that this ordeal has inflicted a deep emotional toll would be an understatement. Even an unsuccessful murder plot risks having a chilling effect on countless others who may now think twice before standing up.

But it doesn’t have to turn out this way. We can turn this tragedy into an engine to unite our neighbors around a strong civic identity.

There is nothing more American than dissenting, and there is nothing more un-American than a foreign power silencing a dissenter from across the sea. Hostile regimes don’t discriminate based on party ID when they threaten people on American soil. Consider Russian election interference against Democrats and an Iranian scheme to assassinate Donald Trump (incidentally, the same handler who ordered Masih’s killing is thought to also have been responsible for the operation against Trump).

The degree to which the United States protects our First Amendment liberties is unprecedented even among our peers in the Free World (just look at the free speech situation in Great Britain to get a sense of how expansive our freedoms are).

Freedom of speech, press, assembly, petition, and religion ought to be the pride of every American, regardless of their politics. Those rights, and their broad, uniquely American interpretation, can inspire love for this nation. Above all, they demand a proactive defense from our leaders regardless of where the threat originates from or whom it targets.

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