Podoliak joined the team of a Russian running for FIDE president: reaction of the Ukrainian Chess Federation
Фото: Reuters
The Chess Federation of Ukraine has announced that it does not support the candidacy of Kazakh billionaire Timur Turlov in the FIDE presidential election. The statement came after Mykhailo Podolyak, a freelance advisor to the President’s Office, agreed to join Turlov’s team.
The FSU emphasized that Podoliak does not represent the federation and has no connection to it. They also stated that they did not authorize him to represent Ukraine in FIDE.
“Mykhailo Podoliak has no relation to the Chess Federation of Ukraine and the chess life of Ukraine, has never helped or contributed to the FSU in any way, and has also had no relation to FIDE,” the federation said in a statement.
The FSU noted that a submission from the national chess federation is required to include a country’s representative in the FIDE leadership. They called the agreement between Turlov and Podoliak “exclusively correspondence between two individuals on social networks” and declared an attempt to raid the federation.
The FSU called on Turlov and Podoliak to refute the information about this initiative. If this does not happen, the federation plans to defend its rights in court. The FSU also appealed to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, the Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov, Prime Minister Serhiy Koretsky, and the Minister of Youth and Sports Matviy Bidny with a request to take the situation under control.
Timur Turlov is a 38-year-old businessman of Kazakh origin who was born in Russia. He is the founder and majority shareholder of Freedom Holding Corp. Until 2022, Turlov held Russian citizenship, but in June of that year he renounced it and obtained Kazakh citizenship.
In October 2022, Ukraine imposed sanctions on Turlov. At the same time, the licenses of the Ukrainian broker Freedom Finance Ukraine were suspended and its assets were frozen. Turlov stated that he considered the sanctions to be erroneous and tried to have them lifted.
The election of the FIDE President is scheduled to take place on September 26-27 during the organization’s General Assembly in Samarkand. The previous FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich, resigned after EU sanctions were imposed against him.
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