Outspoken Putin critic: Trump’s press conference just like Soviet ones

Garry Kasparov, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, likened President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference Wednesday to ones held by leaders in the Soviet Union.

“That reminded me of a Soviet press conference. More speakers than questions, more flags than answers,” Kasparov, a former world chess champion, wrote in a tweet during the press conference.

That reminded me of a Soviet press conference. More speakers than questions, more flags than answers.

— Garry Kasparov (@Kasparov63) January 11, 2017

Trump on Monday held his first press conference since the election and a day after an explosive report from CNN claiming that intelligence officials were investigating whether Russia had compromising personal information about him.

Buzzfeed News later Tuesday night published a dossier detailing those explosive and unsubstantiated allegations against Trump. The allegations in that dossier have not been verified by U.S. intelligence or by reporters.

The press conference began with incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer and Vice President-elect Mike Pence both condemning the decision of Buzzfeed News to publish the dossier. Spicer called it a “sad and pathetic attempt to get clicks.”

Trump had blasted the reports Tuesday night in a tweet as “fake news” and “a total political witch hunt.”

Trump also had a heated exchange with CNN reporter and refused to take a question from the network.

“You are fake news,” Trump told CNN’s Jim Acosta. Trump instead called on a Breitbart News reporter.

While CNN reported that intelligence officials were looking into the dossier, the network had not published the contents of the memos that composed the dossier.

Kasparov, the chairman of the Human Rights Foundation, told CNN in October he thought Putin was “absolutely” trying to elect Trump.

Kasparov once said it would “be a disaster” if Trump didn’t change his tone during his transition, according to an interview with WBUR.