We previously reported on the new 21st sanctions package introduced by the European Union on July 23, specifically noting the personal sanctions imposed against those involved in our investigations, including FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich.
And in June, FIDE suspended the Chess Federation of Russia’s membership in FIDE, specifically for its illegal activities in the occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea.
Now it has become known that FIDE is holding elections for a new leader to replace Dvorkovich, and at the same time, the aggressor’s propaganda has begun actively promoting the claims of the “Crimean senator” and fake “chess champion” Sergey Karjakin.
We also noted Karjakin’s statements about “the need to create alternative chess federations” instead of FIDE, and his active participation in a Russian intelligence project, the so-called “international project” “Chess Diplomacy in Russian Houses,” currently being conducted by the aggressor in a number of third countries.
Among other things, we wrote about a provocation organized by Russian intelligence services involving Karjakin as part of this “international project” in Astana.
The organizational “umbrella” for these provocations is the “Moscow Region Chess Federation,” led by Albert Minnullin, a longtime career agent of Russian foreign intelligence.
And now, by a “coincidence,” Timur Turlov, owner of Freedom Holding Corp., which operates in the United States, Kazakhstan, and Russia, has announced his intention to run for the post of FIDE president, and Karjakin himself is actively supporting him publicly.
Turlov moved to Almaty 15 years ago, and in 2022, he received Kazakh citizenship, allegedly “renunciating his Russian and St. Kitts and Nevis passports.”
This process demonstrates that the Kremlin is actively seeking to replace Dvorkovich in FIDE with another controlled figure.
Against this backdrop, Danish grandmaster and national chess champion Peter Heine Nielsen recalled his request to FIDE last year for a response to Karjakin’s propaganda activities as an obvious accomplice to Russian international crimes.
