Reading through Korchnois account in his book "My life and Games" and that of Taimanov selected games book about how the former ussr deals it its erring players, i am in the opinion that spassky might be telling the truth.
Boris Spassky
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To me it seems as if Spassky suffers consequences of his stroke and is confused. His sister who is very close to him says that he was fine the last time they met, and has nothing but praise for his wife since many decades, saying that she always wanted what was best for him.
The Russian article about what happened is very critical of Spassky's wife, saying that she placed him in house arrest, cut him of from Internet access, stopped him from contacting anyone, and added to that the French doctors are accused of trying to kill him, and that he had to escape to Russia to survive. All this sounds rather implausible, especially since he has been talking to people on Skype and in person at many occasions the last years.
Apparently some people bribed the maid of the house when Spassky's wife was out, drove him to the Embassy, and then had him flown to Russia, and now no one in his family knows where he is. I'm sure the French doctors only took care of him in the best way possible and weren't trying to have him killed, it's more probable that Spassky is imagining things.
An update on Boris.
Chessbase report an interview with Boris held in early October.
Great to read that he seems to be improving with regard to his health
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=8531
He is one of the most underrated players of chess history.
People remembered for his loss to Fischer that at great player he was.
Over at ChessBase.com & ChessVibes, there are stories about Spassky either "escaping" from France (and his wife) or being "kidnapped" and taken back to Moscow, depending on the source(s).
Do any of you have any opinions or thoughts on this? Spassky was one of my all-time top 5 players and he seemed to be psychologically stable.
Could he be suffering from after effects from his stroke or do you think something else has happened to him?
Thank you.