17:45, 13 July 2018

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov removed from FIDE's Office

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. Photo by Mitya Aleshkovsky https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Илюмжинов,_Кирсан_Николаевич

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has violated the Code of Ethics of the World Chess Federation, the FIDE stated.

Former Kalmyk President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov had been the permanent president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) since 1995. In October 2017, the FIDE's Executive Committee transferred the powers of the FIDE president to his deputy and demanded from Kirsan Ilyumzhinov not to nominate his candidacy for the election to be held this year in Batumi.

The commission ruled that in the period from March 2017 to April 2018, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov violated the ethics of the FIDE by "putting his own interests above the FIDE's interests and by exceeding their powers."

According to the commission, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov tried to "discredit members of the FIDE presidential council by voicing false and provocative statements and refusing to leave his post after closure of the FIDE's bank accounts." According to the FIDE's website, the actions of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov caused a serious reputational and financial damage to the FIDE, and that fact negatively affected the image of chess organizations.

A Swiss bank threatened to close FIDE's accounts due to the US sanctions against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. In 2015, the US Department of the Treasury imposed sanctions on Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and his "Russian Financial Alliance" bank for the contacts with the Syrian authorities.

This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on July 13, 2018 at 12:16 pm MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.