Former World Chess champion Garry Kasparov believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is a brilliant poker player.

The Russian appeared on Newsmax TV Friday and claimed President Obama doesn’t “have the guts to call his bluff.”

“He is playing poker and I have to give him credit,” Kasparov said of Putin. “He’s a very good poker player because, having very weak hands, he always out-forms the opposition – mainly Barack Obama and his administration – because they don’t have guts to call his bluff.”

Calling Putin a “dictator,” Kasparov said Putin “knows that to stay in power, he must perform every day.”

“He doesn’t have elections, he doesn’t have the parliament to negotiate with, he doesn’t care about the press – public opinion inside or outside of Russia,” Kasparov said. “But he knows that one thing a dictator cannot afford is to look weak.”

According to Kasparov, “That’s why he has to come up always with victories – even virtual victories.

“That’s why we probably have more Russian TV crews in Syria than Russian troops because every day they present news from Syria demonstrating how Putin the great, Putin the invincible, defying America, defying the West and demonstrating Russian power once again.”

Kasparov is author of the new book  “Winter is Coming: Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped.”