Former Russian with Kazakh Passport Becomes FIDE President. He is Under Ukrainian Sanctions
Timur Turlov, 38, a native of Moscow and founder of the financial company Freedom Holding Corp., has been elected President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). In 2022, he renounced his Russian citizenship and obtained Kazakh citizenship. Since 2023, Turlov also heads the Chess Federation of Kazakhstan.
Timur Turlov
The elections took place on September 26 at the FIDE General Assembly in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. In the first round, Germans Jan Henrik Büttner and Vadim Rosenstein, along with Turlov, vied for the presidency. None of the candidates received the required number of votes, so a second round was held two hours later between the two participants who received the most support.
As a result, Turlov received 110 votes, and Rosenstein — 85. Rosenstein was born on the territory of modern Ukraine, and at the age of nine, he moved to Germany with his parents.
Former FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, who will leave office at the end of July 2026 after being included in the European Union's sanctions list, congratulated Turlov on his victory. According to him, Turlov has already done a lot for chess, and now, as the head of FIDE, he will be able to do even more. Dvorkovich noted that the new president and his team have the energy, a clear plan, and resources to accomplish the set tasks, and the election results indicate significant support for Turlov.
In October 2022, Turlov and the Ukrainian company of the international broker Freedom Finance, which belongs to him, fell under the sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. The official reasons for this decision were not reported, but it was suggested that the sanctions might have been related to Turlov's Russian business.
Turlov himself, back in November 2022, called the inclusion of him and the company on the sanctions list a "mechanical error" and stated that there were no factual reasons for sanctions against the company. The management of Ukrainian Freedom Finance then reported that they were working on appealing the sanctions.