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This piece was originally delivered as a speech at the Ukrainian Institute of America on Tuesday, February 10, 2026 in New York City. The talk focused on the need to proactively support Ukrainian victory over Russia through the lens of Garry Kasparov’s new book, The World of Fake Values. More details about Garry’s book will be available in the next week.
Good evening. I want to thank the Ukrainian Institute of America for being our gracious hosts and partners for this event.
I want to speak with you tonight about The World of Fake Values. The World of Fake Values is the title of my new book, and it is the best description I have for a society that is too self-absorbed to defend its founding principles. It is the big picture look at the cauldron of different issues that have come together to produce the current dilemmas we face in democracy, diplomacy, and technology.
What are fake values?
Fake values are foolishness and short-sightedness masquerading as wisdom. Malice passed off as virtue. In essence: a scam.
We are all raised on stories of good and evil. No one reads The Lord of the Rings and comes out thinking that the Fellowship should have negotiated terms with Sauron.
Yet in the real world, we hear the appeals to accommodate evil. In this sense, Ukraine has become a litmus test for fake values.
In our stories, we like to imagine that we would render any aid to our heroes in order to help them fight evil. Yet in real life, when we demand that the US and other countries provide Ukraine with everything that it needs to win, academics, bureaucrats, and talking heads beseech us with buzzwords like “escalation.” Their fake theories, spelled out in lengthy essays and press releases, mean nothing in the face of real atrocities.
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In fantasy, we like to believe that we can tell you who is a good guy, and who is a bad guy. Yet in the real world, when we call to support Ukraine against the fascist Russian aggressors, we hear mealy-mouthed excuses about NATO expansion. Imagine arguing that Tolkien’s heroes encroached too close to Mordor’s borders—they forced the Dark Lord’s hand; he had no choice but to attack!
Now, some may argue that reality demands complex moral choices that fiction does not. They are wrong. When a movie ends, the lights go up and the credits roll and your opinion about the story has no real bearing on anyone. Reality, by contrast, means real consequences, and the worship of fake values can cost lives. It is a sad thing that real values are easier to spot in stories of make believe.
It was not always like this. In World War II, we could tell you who was on the right side, and who was not. In the Cold War, President Reagan decried the USSR as an “evil empire.”
But the fall of communism dulled our senses. Idle hands are the devil’s playthings, and without the specter of Soviet aggression, we—the Free World—lapsed into intellectual indulgence. We over-analyzed. We became afraid to call a spade a spade.
Moral relativism didn’t defeat Naziism and communism. A steadfast belief in freedom did. We forgot that.
America didn’t put a man on the moon by avoiding risk. You accepted sacrifice and faced the challenge head on—as President Kennedy said, “not because it is easy, but because it is hard.” We forgot that too.
Today, lost elections are stolen. Life-saving vaccines are poison. Free markets are evil and communism is the wave of the future. Ukraine, a nation fighting for its survival, is smeared as a “neo-Nazi regime.”
Yet we struggle to fight back against the lies because—above all—we became afraid of being right.
We need to break out of this ideological confusion and return to the self-confidence that ushered in nearly a century of unprecedented peace, prosperity, and innovation in the democratic world.
This is why I founded the Renew Democracy Initiative. To remind Americans that democracy needs a survival instinct. That what the United States, Ukraine, and other free countries have is worth cherishing and protecting. Through a program we call the Frontlines of Freedom, I and many other political dissidents meet with students, business leaders, and elected officials to share our stories and drive the point home. Our network includes over 100 democracy advocates from more than 40 different countries because the cause of liberty is interconnected. What happens in Ukraine affects what happens in Taiwan, Iran, and Venezuela. You cannot isolate one from the other.
RDI is also setting the record straight in the information war, fighting back against tired talking points with a positive belief in freedom on our publication The Next Move. But we don’t just talk. We are walking the walk: As of 2026, RDI has provided over $15 million in humanitarian aid to frontline communities in Ukraine.
This is a far-ranging fight. As I lay out in my book, it spans borders and industry, demanding bold action in diplomacy, security, and technological innovation. But returning to the path of real values starts in one place: Ukraine. It means providing our Ukrainian friends everything that they need to defeat Russia. Ukraine is the frontline of freedom. There is no clearer test of our commitment.
Slava Ukraini!
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If Ukrainians Were Dolphins
Daily, Putin’s Russia bathes Ukraine in blood, and the world barely stirs.
You cut through the fog without hedging. The contrast between story and statecraft lands. Calling Ukraine a test clarifies stakes others blur. You name the cost of equivocation and press for action. That clarity serves freedom—and forces readers to choose. Thank you for speaking without flinching when it counts as much as the issue here!
Bandy X. Lee
''Minnesota Nice''
'This would not be the first time for “Minnesota Nice.” A fierce spirit underlies that polite exterior to defy unprecedented subzero temperatures, at times colder than minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit, to take on the mantle of responsibility that has fallen on them: to gather, day after day, at this critical juncture for the nation, and to stand up to Donald Trump! They recognize that, when formal checks and balances fail to constrain a dangerously mentally-impaired dictator, whose psychopathy has morphed into grotesque delusions of grandeur and would continue to transmogrify without end, as long as he is in the executive office—someone, somewhere must stop him! When just about everyone else has been threatened, intimidated, harassed, and beaten into giving up, Minnesotans have admirably decided that they simply cannot give in.'