President of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: biography, family. Biography Kirsan Nikolaevich Ilyumzhinov family children

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• source: scandaly.ru

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was included in the US sanctions list a year ago and now really wants to be removed from the list. Sanctions are making it very difficult for him to do business. But he was included in the list precisely because doing business alone was always boring for him.

“We came into this world naked, and we will leave naked,” a meek, oriental-looking man in a discreet black leather jacket and jeans convinced me in a dark Moscow courtyard.

The driver of his Mercedes started the engine from time to time, apparently my interlocutor was late for the next meeting, but I was determined to find out from the former President of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov everything about his business. Bulgarian oil trader with billions of dollars in assets? British fund for ten billion? Sugar trader with global reach? And some little things in Russia. The media wrote about all these assets, and I wanted to know for sure whether it was true or not.

“The Buddha taught that you can’t get used to anything,” sighed Kirsan Nikolaevich. “Not to cars, not to buildings, not even to your physical shell.” Now I have enough for dinner, for gas, for a plane - and it’s good.

It’s not that he was in a hurry to get rid of me - in the end we talked for half an hour, and he, in turn, was interested in my opinion: is he doing the right thing by publicly declaring his readiness to sue the American Ministry of Finance? But the conversation didn't go well.

— First of all, I’m a write-maker...

- Who?! — I chattered my teeth from the cold.

“Peacemaker,” he pronounced more carefully. “I am now interested in large global processes.” I meet with two or three heads of state a week. I feel that I can influence processes, maybe stop the war. And I also want to teach people to play chess. My plan is for a billion people to play chess by 2020. Now only 600 million play.

On August 25, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was stopped at Sheremetyevo Airport by Delta airline employees when he had already gone through passport control and was about to take his seat on the Moscow-New York flight. His name had been on the sanctions list for almost a year - “for material assistance and actions in the interests and on behalf of the government of Syria and the Central Bank of Syria,” and he was eager to meet with officials who could remove him from this list. “Sorry,” Delta employees told him. “You’re not flying anywhere, we’ll refund your ticket.”



Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Vladimir Putin

Since then, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has given several press conferences in Moscow, at which he called on Barack Obama and the US Treasury to meet with him face to face to resolve all misunderstandings. If necessary, meet in court, and if “he has to” accept American citizenship for this, then please, he will accept.

There are dozens of names on the sanctions lists, but only the former Kalmyk president is making noise and threatening with courts and citizenship. It can be assumed that, firstly, because he is no longer an official, and secondly, sanctions greatly interfere with business. Which is what I ask him for the umpteenth time in the rain.

“He came out, he got out of everything,” it seems that he was also pretty tired of this story. “One messenger remained.”

— What messenger? — I was taken aback.

- Buddhist.

That same evening, I downloaded the Kirsan messenger, “designed to unite millions of Buddhists around the world,” to my phone from the Play Market. Play Market told me that my download was 101st.

Under the dome of oil

In the fall of 1999, a cavalcade of buses accompanied by government vehicles with flashing lights moved from Elista airport towards City Chess.

There were surprisingly few people along the way: not so long ago the International Chess Olympiad was held in Elista, for which, in fact, a chess town was built, and since then the Elista residents have been afraid of guests: during the Olympiad, the Kalmyk president strictly ordered Kalmyk hospitality to be demonstrated to the fullest reel, feed and water dear guests for free, invite them to visit, entertain.

This time, oil workers came to visit - scientists and officials, to whom the republic's leadership wanted to show their new project - "Caspian".

In the waters of the Caspian Sea it was planned to build an artificial mini-island, and on it - a concrete dome, hollow inside - a mobile oil derrick. With the help of this tower, the Kalmyk oil company will produce oil: there are billions of tons of it in the depths of the Caspian Sea, and this production will be completely safe for the environment.

The oil workers stationed in City Chess will then have a long helicopter ride over the lotus meadows and seal rookeries to show that there is something to save here. Further more. The dome will be camouflaged as a mountain landscape, with artificial forests and a waterfall, with a ski slope and hotels, and sturgeon will be bred around the island.

After the helicopter ride, a clearing was laid out right in the steppe: bowls of black caviar, vodka, lamb, and a folk dance ensemble. It seems that it was in vain: tipsy officials and scientists muttered that all this was “project work”, that licenses for offshore production were still mainly held by LUKOIL, and for environmental reasons they would not allow Kalmneft there, and oil reserves must first be explored , then find money for production, and then think about seals.



Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Petro Poroshenko

“A rich president is an incorruptible power”—Ilyumzhinov chose this slogan for himself back in 1993, when he was running for the post of president of Kalmykia for the first time.

He had actually earned his first million (and more than one) by that time - he was a farce while studying at MGIMO, then he sold Japanese cars, received some fabulous loans from state banks for the purchase of wool in Kalmykia (there is a known story of how in 1992 he received 14 billion rubles, for some reason I started looking for wool in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Nizhny Tagil, I couldn’t find it, but I returned only 3.5 billion).

However, Ilyumzhinov was not at all shy about the money he earned, but, on the contrary, made it his competitive advantage: he drove around the steppe in a nine-meter black Lincoln, distributed subsidies to reduce prices for bread and milk. The future president promised to make a “second Kuwait” out of impoverished Kalmykia, obviously meaning mainly oil.

But during the years of his presidency in Kalmykia, they were unable to increase not only the production of hard-to-recover offshore oil, but they even greatly reduced the production of mainland oil.

In the mid-1990s, 400-500 thousand tons of oil were produced in the region; in 2011, after Ilyumzhinov left, only 167 thousand tons were produced in the republic

The newspaper Sovetskaya Kalmykia, which was opposed to Ilyumzhinov, claimed that 60% of the assets were withdrawn from the main company of the republic, Kalmneft, which until 2004 was controlled by Ilyumzhinov’s former friend and associate Vladimir Boldyrev. In addition, Kalmneft sent raw materials to “samovars” - illegal oil refineries that dotted the entire Kalmyk steppe.

Following the results of Ilyumzhinov’s reign (he headed the republic until 2010), Kalmykia remained one of the poorest regions of Russia. In terms of average wages and pensions, the republic ranked 80th and 79th, the number of unemployed increased by 1.6 times, budget expenditures exceeded income by 1.25 times.

But Ilyumzhinov’s fortune grew by leaps and bounds: the media tirelessly wrote about his palaces in Russia and abroad, about garages with dozens of the most expensive foreign cars and stables with thoroughbred horses.

Friend from the steppes

Ilyumzhinov’s ability to make friends with the right people is legendary. “Ilyumzhinov, of course, was a self-made man, like other heroes of the 1990s, but their survival presupposed the ability to find friends. His circle of friends was never stable: different eras needed different friends,” says political scientist Alexander Kynev.

In an interview with Vedomosti, Ilyumzhinov proudly talked about how, thanks to the offshore zone he organized in Kalmykia (1994-2002), he became friends with all the participants in the Forbes list.

“When I became president, I started bringing my friends here... There is not a single oligarch in Russia who has not been here. I invited everyone here, persuaded them, fed them with lamb,” Ilyumzhinov told Vlast magazine in 2009.

“Some of them at that time came to Elista in Zhiguli cars,” he told Vedomosti about the billionaires, emphasizing his (more precisely, the offshore zone) contribution to the formation of large capitals. The friendship was truly mutually beneficial: entrepreneurs saved on local taxes, paying for this the agreed money to Ilyumzhinov’s structures (first - the Development and Cooperation Agency, after 1998 - investment projects, the most popular of which was the Kalmyk business center in the territory of City-Chess).

He also provided other financial services to Ilyumzhinov’s friends. At the beginning of the 2000s, journalist Valery Badmaev published an investigation in the Sovetskaya Kalmykia newspaper based on documents he had about the transfer of $10 million through the Kalmyk business center to a Panamanian offshore. “This was only one episode; how many there were in total is unknown,” says Badmaev.



Over the 17 years of Ilyumzhinov’s presidency, Kalmykia has become significantly poorer, unlike himself
Photo: Alexey Ivanov / Sport-Express / TASS

After the end of his political career, Ilyumzhinov had the opportunity to legalize capital. Over the past six years, he bought a controlling stake in Petrol Holding, a monopolist on the Bulgarian petroleum products market, and announced that he was creating a fund of up to $10 billion together with one of the largest funds in the UK, Ashmore Group, to invest in projects in the fuel and energy complex, metallurgy, telecommunications and food industry, became a key shareholder in the Sucres and Denrees (Sucden) group, one of the world's largest sugar traders, and pledged to invest $5.5 billion in Pakistan's coal fields.

However, doing business alone was clearly not enough for him. The friendly 54-year-old MGIMO graduate has clearly felt in recent years that his potential is just beginning to be realized—and he chose FIDE as a new “social network” for building a much larger friendship.

“I, as the head of FIDE, visit more than 100 countries a year. Many friends and businessmen ask me to come to an agreement with one government or another - I advise them and help them enter new markets. In general, I act as a negotiator. Sometimes you need to negotiate financing with banks, I organize it. Sometimes for this you have to join the board of directors of some companies,” he says.

In recent years, the FIDE President has discovered the enormous chess potential of the brotherly Syrian people. To implement plans for the development of chess, he visited Syria several times and also met with Adib Mayaleh, head of the Central Bank of Syria. The chess king volunteered to provide Mayalech with a very delicate service - to help his daughter, who was being oppressed at a French school. Ilyumzhinov fulfilled the mission at the highest level: during a visit to Paris as part of the “Chess at School” program, he settled the issue with the French government.

For the US authorities, however, the story about school bullying turned out to be unconvincing, and in November last year Ilyumzhinov was included in the sanctions list. A week later, the Turkish President added fuel to the fire. On the occasion of the deterioration of relations with Russia, he spoke about a certain “famous Russian chess player” who is involved in schemes for buying oil from IS banned in the Russian Federation and resell it to Syria.

In addition to Ilyumzhinov, the small bank Russian Financial Alliance was included in the list - Ilyumzhinov bought 19% of this bank in 2013. According to Allbanks.ru, it was assumed that the Russian Financial Alliance would become a FIDE bank and would participate in Ilyumzhinov’s sports and investment projects. The board of directors of the bank is headed by a Russian citizen of Syrian origin, Mudalal Khoury, who is also included in the sanctions list: the United States believes that he is related to the financial transactions of the Syrian government.

Because of the sanctions, of course, all areas of Ilyumzhinov’s activities suffered. He says he had to withdraw from all foreign projects. Ilyumzhinov, most likely due to sanctions, fell through a deal to purchase shares of Russia’s largest ammonia producer, Togliattiazot: one of the main owners of the enterprise, Sergei Makhlai, has American citizenship and lives in the United States. Konmex LLC, through which Ilyumzhinov owned the Russian Financial Alliance, also changed owners.

However, he will obviously have to come to terms with the fact that sanctions will last for a long time. The States clearly do not intend to give citizenship to such a versatile and caring person, nor to cross him off the list. And Ilyumzhinov does not intend to change his earnings model, in which business is always friends with politics.

Interesting article?

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov served as president of the Republic of Kalmykia for a long time, worked in the Senate, is a graduate of MGIMO, a member of the party in power and president of FIDE - his biography is without exaggeration exemplary. There are, of course, their own peculiarities - for example, stories about abduction by aliens in 1998, with whom he allegedly flew to another planet “on business.” It is possible that his contacts with aliens were caused by an addiction to psychotropic substances, since drug trafficking flourished in Kalmykia.

Ilyumzhinov was not very worried about all this when he was president. And no wonder: as Parity Media reports, back in 1988 he was expelled from the institute for using and distributing drugs. The future head of Kalmykia was detained in the Moscow Beijing Hotel, where he was trying to sell a shipment of marijuana. He managed to recover, as they say, thanks to powerful patrons in the highest echelons of power.

Years later, residents of Kalmykia for a long time could not explain the numerous oddities in the hyperactive behavior of Kirsan Nikolaevich, who ate very little, slept even less, spoke affectively and was distinguished by contrasting mood swings. In the fall of 2002, at the height of the election campaign, 40-year-old Ilyumzhinov, while in his office, suddenly lost consciousness. The reasons for his health problems were not officially commented on, but everything was clear to everyone.

Seventeen years of Ilyumzhinov’s rule, aptly nicknamed by journalists “the cave nationalism of the steppe khan,” ended with a decrease in the republic’s population by 11.3%, an increase in mortality, crime and unemployment. The region ranks last in Russia in terms of gross regional product and remains one of the most depressed and disadvantaged in the country.

Another monument of the Ilyumzhinov era is the abandoned “City of Chess” in Elista, worth about $100 million. And how does Kirsan Nikolaevich himself feel? I must say, very good. Twelve years ago, Forbes estimated his fortune at $2.6 billion, and it is not known for certain where such funds could have come from a civil servant and what exactly he owned and still owns. Maybe those same alien friends bring him money. But there is another option - he earned his initial capital from the shameless robbery of his region and country. After all, many in Kalmykia remember stories about government loans embezzled by the president for the development of republican industry and mothers who allegedly voluntarily refused child benefits for the sake of building “Ilyumzhinov villages” - chess cities and other dubious activities.

Golden time

The nineties, of course, were a golden time for a person with Ilyumzhinov’s mentality. For example, in 1992, Ilyumzhinov, then an unknown head of the Steppe Association, undertook to provide domestic textile enterprises with high-quality wool from Kalmykia, receiving a loan from the government of 14 billion non-denominated rubles (more than $110 million). Most of the loan disappeared without a trace. A year later, Ilyumzhinov bought the Kalmykia check investment fund, which collected several hundred thousand vouchers from the population and transferred them to the Moscow City Bank, the same one that “most likes” the kind, lively and inquisitive dolphin from the unforgettable advertisement.

Cute dolphins, unfortunately, did not save the bank from bankruptcy in 1995. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov remembers this project, but says that “he was not involved in this.” “It was the management that acquired something there,” he justifies himself in an interview and asks himself: “You don’t know, but the head of the bank was eventually caught?” There are many such episodes in the biography of the FIDE president. Ilyumzhinov called his efforts to find and embezzle money “a tightrope walk.”

Election campaign

There were also rumors that during the 1995 election campaign, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, through Muzgunov, transferred 300 (three hundred) million rubles in cash to the common fund, because the issue of using previously convicted people for monetary reward to organize mass unrest if he was not elected was considered. Also, through his “relatives”, he organized the delivery of food products worth large sums to penal colonies and pre-trial detention centers.

Those undesirable were “removed.” Thus, one of the leaders of the criminal group “Solnechnye” - Balikov (“supervisor” and holder of the “common fund”) was shot with a Makarov pistol in his apartment for refusing to participate in political events of Ilyumzhinov, who motivated this by the fact that it was necessary for them “ concepts." The crime has never been solved. An authority figure named Saturn (A. Nimlirov), repeatedly convicted of serious crimes, who refused after several meetings to “serve” Ilyumzhinov, was shot dead in his own apartment with a machine gun. The crime has not been solved.

One of Ilyumzhinov’s relatives was Dzhambinov. In 1994-95 brought to criminal responsibility for the theft of humanitarian aid by the Kaluga Region Department of Operations. Previously, he was listed as an employee of the Information Center for Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan and was detained with a service weapon in the city of Moscow while intoxicated. For a long time he was listed as an operational employee of one of the departments of the penitentiary system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Nicknames: “Sour cream”, “Borsch”. Through Dzhambinov, Ilyumzhinov placed his bet on the Solnechny organized crime group to exert influence and control over criminals in the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. For this purpose, most favored nation treatment was made for representatives of the Solnechny organized crime group in the creation and development of commercial firms, such as:

LLC "Solnechny" - theft of humanitarian aid, spilling and illegal wholesale trade of alcoholic beverages. Director V. Vankaev - former head of the OBKhSS Iki-Burulsky District Department of Internal Affairs - holder of the "common fund" of the Solnechny organized crime group; Bely Bereg LLC - director I.B. Umamdzhiev is an employee of Kalmneft; LLC "Kalmyk Prairie in Europe", V. Vankaev, I.B. Umomdzhiev. The sphere of priority interests also included illegal mini-oil refineries on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which were under the control of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan Sasykov.

To solve the above problems, the former deputy, who was retired, was recalled and appointed head of the penitentiary system of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Head of Colony No. 2 UN RK Z.V. Dzhantaev (Chechen), formerly an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya, who was one of the leaders of the Chechens on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan. In general, Ilyumzhinov always had a close connection with the Chechens living on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and through their leaders with the Chechen communities in Astrakhan, Rostov and Volgograd regions. He also had a close relationship with the Muslim leader of the Republic of Kazakhstan M-Sh. M. Shapiev, the representative of Dagestan in the Stavropol Territory - M. Omarov, and through them with the Dagestan communities in the Stavropol Territory, Astrakhan and Volgograd regions (leader nicknamed Teapot). By the way, the son of the Muslim leader Shapiev, Murad, studied in the United Arab Emirates.

Since January 2002, at the direction of Ilyumzhinov, people from other regions (M. Murchuev, O. Kimgirov, Yu. Dordzhiev, etc.) entered the correctional institutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan in stages, who consolidated those previously convicted and followed all his instructions. From that moment on, food and alcohol began to be delivered to the “zone.” A system of free exit outside the penitentiary complex for “certain” persons for a monetary reward or to carry out special assignments also began to operate. For example, according to many witnesses, the unsolved murder of journalist Larisa Yudina. These exits were not recorded anywhere or by anyone. They were released for up to one week. And from ITK-3 (colony-settlement) for an unlimited period. Thus, according to unverified information, Vaskin and Shanukov, who were listed in ITK-3, while in the city of Elista, carried out the contract killing of journalist Larisa Yudina.

Ilyumzhinov himself, according to the tradition he established, spent every New Year in ITK-1. On his instructions, food, alcohol, and even, according to some reports, drugs were brought there. Money was allocated for the thieves' common fund. All this was done in order to use the criminal element in organizing mass unrest in the correctional colony and on the territory of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the event of unsuccessful elections. In these possible unrest, Ilyumzhinov assigned himself the role of a “peacemaker” in order to return power to the Republic of Kazakhstan on this wave, to raise his authority in the eyes of the central government, as the only one capable of stabilizing the republic.

All the more interesting today is the fact that Ilyumzhinov voluntarily gave up power in Kalmykia. The only explanation for this can be that the authority of the federal center has actually increased.

Crime bosses

He never tried to deny that since childhood he had been friends with the main crime bosses of the region: “Many of them grew up with me, some even worked for me, helped someone with business,” Express Gazeta quotes Ilyumzhinov as saying. Having come to power, he soon hastened to declare victory over organized crime. But, according to residents of the region, the criminal groups have not gone away, but only regularly paid the Kalmyk leader a substantial percentage of the turnover. Those who dared to stand in the way of “Khan Kirsan” were often simply “removed from the board.”

Everyone in Kalmykia remembers the murder of the editor of the opposition newspaper “Soviet Kalmykia Today” Larisa Yudina, one of the perpetrators of which was Ilyumzhinov’s former assistant.

Before coming to power, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, like many politicians of the early 90s, maintained close ties with criminal “authorities”, who are generally considered to be Barvantsikova (died), Valery Khaptakhanov and Maznu Muzgunov in Kamlmykia. After coming to power, Ilyumzhinov appointed Barvantsikov as Minister of Press of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Khaptakhanov and Muzgunov were responsible for relations with criminals and were used by Ilyumzhinov for moral and physical pressure on opposition representatives. The victims of these figures are considered to be: Boris Andzhaev - stabbed a month before the presidential elections in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Larisa Yudina - killed, V. Kolesnikov - the door was set on fire, V. Badmaev - threat of physical violence.

Terrorist attack in "Nord-Ost"

Thus, there is a version about Ilyumzhinov’s involvement in financing the terrorist attack in “Nord-Ost” and close contacts with terrorists. The fact is that the leader of the militants is not only one of the most brutal and odious terrorists in the history of Russia, but also once the president of the Chechen Chess Federation. Kirsan Nikolaevich is said to have had warm, friendly relations with his Chechen colleague for many years.

It is not surprising that it was on the territory of Kalmykia that underground Chechen oil refining factories were located. The investigation into the monetary side of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka yielded sensational results: Basayev received $2 million for the execution of the action, which was transferred... from Kalmykia! This, of course, is not the only case when the name of the ex-head of Kalmykia appears in the same context with Russia’s irreconcilable enemies.

12 years ago, the head of the Rothschild investment fund, Nathaniel Rothschild, after a visit to Elista, said that he would recommend the then President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili to visit Kalmykia and learn from Ilyumzhinov’s experience! Considering that the financial and economic situation of the republic during the reign of Kirsan Nikolaevich left much to be desired (unlike his own), it is unclear what Saakashvili should have learned. But this is only at first glance. Masquerading as a cosmopolitan and patriot of multinational Russia, Ilyumzhinov in fact always believed that “Kalmykia is for Kalmyks.” He did not have warm feelings for the other peoples of Russia, especially the Russians.

Interethnic “stability”

Back in 1993, Ilyumzhinov, who verbally declared a course towards “interethnic stability,” generously sponsored the so-called. "Slavic association" "Call". In fact, “Call,” led by drunken teacher Ivan Pustovarov, was an organization of “frostbitten” Ukrainian nationalists. “Broad” Ukrainians, calling themselves “true Slavs,” launched propaganda of Bandera’s ideas on a grand scale, branding “filthy Tatar-Muscovites” at every corner. It was on the basis of Russophobia that the head of Kalmykia and the American protege Saakashvili came together. This marked the beginning of many years of friendships and partnerships.

Together, this duo carried out many daring anti-Russian provocations, and the leading role in inciting the Russian-Georgian conflict, which ended in war, belonged to Ilyumzhinov and Saakashvili. And in 2015, a meeting between Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko took place in Lvov. The reason was the most harmless - the head of FIDE wanted the match for the world champion title to take place this year in Lvov, the most Russophobic city in Ukraine, although China had previously submitted an official application.

However, nothing surprising, because FIDE, under the leadership of Ilyumzhinov, never recognized Crimea as part of Russia. And who after this will believe that at a personal meeting with Poroshenko, Russia’s principled opponent, only chess was discussed, and not, say, the state of the conflict in the South-East of Ukraine and financial assistance in the ATO? Attracting investment and tourists to Galicia is probably the most suspicious and inappropriate thing that United Russia, a former Russian senator and ex-head of the region, can do in 2015.

As Ilyumzhinov himself asserted, there is no trace of any “Banderaites” or “Westerners” in Lvov. Previously, Kirsan Nikolaevich was seen lobbying the interests of the owners of the SVEL factories, the Kishko brothers, and he did this in conjunction with deputies of the Ukrainian “Self-Help” and the notorious deputy Oleg Lyashko. In addition, a few years ago, he seriously considered the possibility of installing a robot Vasya on the Kiev Maidan, who was supposed to “play chess, ooh and ahh.” Perhaps he has not abandoned this idea to this day, who knows? Unless now Vasya will have to be taught not only to ooh and ahh, but also, at a minimum, to throw Molotov cocktails and raise his hand in the traditional Nazi salute.

Over the years in big politics and big business, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has proven that he will stop at nothing to get more money and power. The fight against Russia today is a very profitable business, just ask the former shareholders of YUKOS.

Where is Kirsan Ilyumzhinov now? This question is naturally not without interest. The former official, who once headed the government of the Republic of Kalmykia, spends most of his time in his country house in Elista, continuing to engage in business and his favorite hobbies. He also owns a two-room apartment in Moscow, periodically visiting Belokamennaya.

I was born on April 5, 1962, early in the morning - four minutes to six. My parents already had one son, Vyacheslav, and they really wanted a girl. But I was born. And after me, a few years later, another brother. God never sent daughters to their parents.

With MY birth, the first conflict arose in our family - between my father and grandmother. My father wanted to name me Kirsan - in honor of his uncle Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a hero of the Civil War. Grandmother - in honor of her father - Badmoy. But in a Kalmyk family, the man’s word is decisive, and they named me Kirsan. My grandmother, out of feminine stubbornness, called me Badma, and until the first grade I responded to this name.

First million

I STILL consider the army to be the main school of my life (I served at a communications center in the North Caucasus Military District). I didn’t know how to wrap foot wraps, and my feet bled. The “grandfathers” beat everyone and educated them. I didn’t want to give in - and with several other first-year students I dared to fight back the “grandfathers”. There were losses on both sides - swollen eyes, broken lips, torn tunics. The “grandfathers” promised to kill us soon. The guys were on the limit: a little more and they would start shooting. I decided to go and try to negotiate with the “grandfathers”. And they left us alone. We survived. It was a victory. Six months later I was already a sergeant.

I still have some pleasant memories from the army. For example, I learned to sleep with my eyes open. You stand on the nightstand and sleep. This is very useful now. Sometimes during long and tedious meetings I sleep this way.

After graduating from MGIMO, from which I was expelled as an Afghan-Iranian spy and reinstated six months later as a completely reliable citizen and diplomat of Russia, I was hired as a manager in a large Japanese company.

This was my first experience working in a foreign business. It became fundamental for me. I had a dream - to become a millionaire. And there was mad excitement. I liked making money, being a businessman. And now the dream has come true. The bank informed me that I had a million dollars in my account. I asked to cash this amount and went to the bank in excitement. They gave me ten rolls of dollars. I arrived home, closed the door, laid out these bundles on the table and looked at them for a long time, probably an hour or two, and thought: “Here is my million dollars, so what?” And suddenly my excitement disappeared. I realized that making money cannot be the goal of life.

Mendelssohn March

My WIFE Danara and I are classmates. We were friends since childhood, and I always liked this modest, quiet girl. But she had such an inner strength that forced her to be treated with great respect. I've always loved her. And he knew that we would be together. She was waiting for me. First, when I served in the army, then when I studied at MGIMO. We got married when we were 29 years old. The wedding was very quiet and modest - both of us are not fans of noisy gatherings. In the same year, our son David was born. My family lives in Elista. David goes to school there. There are no nannies or governesses. Danara works with him herself. Well, of course, grandparents on both sides. When I'm at home and have the opportunity, I take part in the household as much as I can - washing the dishes.

My wife is a completely unambitious woman. She likes to just be a wife and housewife, work with her son, cook, visit her parents, and help them. She never discusses my affairs. I am very grateful to her for this and love her very much. As for polygamy in our republic, if parliament passes this law, then this is the will of the people. My wife, for example, reacted to this situation with humor - she said that if I suddenly decided to take several more wives, she would be the “senior in staff.”

My son is interested in chess and football. Recently he played in Italy as part of the Kalmykia children's football team. From all my trips abroad I bring him all sorts of football gadgets. Until recently, my son and his wife lived in a two-room apartment. The parents were indignant. I had to buy a house with a small garden and vegetable garden. Now in the summer you can gather with your family and drink tea under the trees. In Moscow I also have a two-room apartment and a country residence.

Mom, Rimma Sergeevna, is a veterinarian, father, Nikolai Dorzhinovich, is now retired. My parents have been living for almost forty years in a small house on 6 acres and do not want to move anywhere. Mom is interested in growing flowers. Patriarch Alexy really liked her flower garden when he visited us.

Master of the Stone

I DRESS mostly abroad. In hotel shops. There is no time to go anywhere else. Lately I prefer Briony. His models fit me perfectly. Shoes are from Bali. I like light-colored shirts - a lot of official meetings. I choose ties intuitively. If I like something in a store from another company, I definitely buy it; I’m not conservative. However, now, when choosing clothes, I ask for prices if they are not indicated. Recently an incident occurred that left me with a slight bad taste. I went with Juan Antonio Samaranch to the store to buy a demi-season coat, and at the same time I looked for a shirt and tie. The coat was the most ordinary, classic, shirt and tie too. The sellers just fluttered over me. I paid with a card, and then looked at the receipt - and almost dropped the purchase from my hands: the total purchase amount was $25,000. The coat cost 20,000, the shirt cost 4,500, and the tie cost $500. If I had been alone, I would have returned all this to them, but at Samaranch it was somehow inconvenient. At home I wear a T-shirt and jeans. I love beautiful clothes, but I’m not at all obsessed with them. As for precious stones, I wear sapphires - in cufflinks, in watches, in a small gold signet, and on my neck - my talisman - an Indian sapphire of 57 carats. There is a mystical story associated with this sapphire. My assistant, while in India, walked around the bazaar. I went into one small shop and saw two large stones there - an untreated emerald and a sapphire. He turned to the owner: “How much does a sapphire cost?” “Ten thousand dollars,” was the answer. He called me. I decided that I couldn’t spend more than five thousand.

The assistant talked with the owner - it turned out that the stones were not his, but his father’s, who had retired. The owner was sorry to lose the buyer, and he went to consult his father. Having listened to this story, he looked somewhere into the distance and said to his son: “The owner came for the stone, give the sapphire for as much as they give for it, and thank you that they came for it during my lifetime.” That’s how I ended up with this sapphire, and I haven’t taken it off since then.

Like any man, I have a special relationship with watches. I love expensive watches with many functions. Once I was sailing on a ship, stood at the side, looked at my watch (worth 100 thousand dollars) and suddenly realized: for the voyage to be successful, I must pay tribute to the sea gods, as all sailors do both in ancient times and now. I took off my watch and threw it into the sea. The swim went very well. And I also bought myself a watch. Now I have a watch from one of the sheikhs of the United Arab Emirates, it costs about 200 thousand dollars - a collector's item. After negotiations in the UAE, we relaxed, drank tea with the sheikhs, and started talking about watches. One of the sheikhs really liked mine - and he offered to change. I didn’t refuse the offer, although my watch was exactly half the price, but that didn’t bother anyone.

The media says that I collect expensive cars, but this is not true. I just have a fairly large fleet of vehicles. But sometimes I just “catch” a car on the street; I really like it when people don’t recognize me. There was one case when I was very late, the traffic was flowing and no one stopped. Suddenly a Zaporozhets drove up. Imagine how long the faces of the partners meeting me were! “Well,” they said, “Ilyumzhinov has become so full of cars, he’s become really cool - now he drives a Zaporozhets!” And I didn’t care what to go on, as long as I didn’t be late.

The head of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, has been trying to hide the mayor of Elista (the capital of the republic) for several months in a row. Radia Burulova to jail on a trivial charge. Allegedly, Burulov, abusing his official powers, allowed a company registered in the name of his father to win a tender for the supply of fuel and lubricants. Moreover, the investigation was unable to prove that the conditions offered to the city by the “affiliated” company were worse than the conditions of competitors. And what then is the crime? It's still unclear.

But who really has the stigma in the cannon is the one himself Kirsan Nikolaevich. As has been repeatedly reported in the media, over more than 15 years of rule, Ilyumzhinov turned the steppe republic into a corruption corporation, the property of which is completely controlled by members of his inner circle and numerous relatives. And, let us note, the “Kirsanovites” chopped off an entire republic without any tenders. And in general - at ridiculous prices, and often for free.

Kirsan clan

Let us remind readers of what has already been published in the press, with the necessary clarifications and the addition of a number of new details. Only according to rough estimates, the Ilyumzhinov clan owns the largest supermarkets in the capital of Kalmykia, Elista (Grand, KIT, White Lotus), the Interline company, which owns a network of communication stores and stores selling household and office equipment, and a cardboard factory , VIP-hotel "White Lotus", a network of wholesale stores. As well as the National Clearing Bank (NCB), which serves budgetary organizations of the republic. Of course, all of the wealth listed is registered in the name of dummies.

Regarding the NKB. On April 09, 2001, Ilyumzhinov issued an illegal order, according to which more than 200 budgetary institutions and organizations were obliged (forcibly) to be serviced by LLC CB National Clearing Bank. Here, when servicing enterprises, hefty interest rates are charged for any settlement transactions. Since then, literally all the funds that the republic earns or receives from the center go to the NCB. And from there, both the government and the city are forced to receive money by paying compensation to the “steppe khan” for the use of... their own finances.

As a result, CB National Clearing Bank LLC caused damage to the republican and local budgets on a particularly large scale, amounting to billions of rubles. OJSC Kalmpetrol, a network of gas stations, and the trading company Prodinvesttrading operate in the republic due to profits received from the illegal use of budget funds. It is not difficult to guess that these enterprises also belong to the Ilyumzhinov clan. By the way, the NKB is run by Kirsan’s brothers: his brother, Sanal Ilyumzhinov, and his cousin, Baatr Petrushkin.

Apparently, Kirsan established the National Clearing Bank as compensation for "offshore" losses. Several years ago, through the efforts of the Kremlin, the Kalmyk offshore (more precisely, a fraudulent office for laundering criminal money and large-scale tax evasion), which caused enormous damage to the federal treasury, was finally strangled. And there were good reasons for this.

According to auditors Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, hundreds of millions of dollars that should have gone to the republican budget as investments were illegally transferred to the private charitable foundation of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, as well as to the private structures of Kalmyk Business Center OJSC. So, at the same time, Ilyumzhinov’s foundation, headed by his cousin Svetlana Abushinova, had to be closed down.

Later, Mrs. Abushinova, under the patronage of her cousin, headed the Ministry of Labor and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan. There she spent considerable sums allocated from the Russian budget (including for national projects). And, apparently, so “successfully” that even the seasoned brother showed his presumptuous relative the door at the end of last year.

However, Svetlana Vladimirovna, who happily acquired a luxurious apartment in an elite building, immediately moved into the soft chair of the head of the republican branch of the Health Insurance Fund (MHIF). There is no doubt that she will achieve excellent financial results in her new position.

Together with Kirsan Nikolaevich’s relatives, he is diligently “sawing” republican property Igor Shalkhakov(his second Kalmyk name is Khongor) is the permanent head of the administration of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan. His moral character, in particular, is evidenced by the fact that Igor Batyrevich built himself a gigantic mansion in the center of Elista on a plot of land located on the territory of a kindergarten.

The influence of this extremely odious personality, in the republic he was nicknamed the “gray cardinal,” on Ilyumzhinov is truly immeasurable. And it’s not surprising - over the years of close cooperation, Shalkhakov probably collected an impressive pile of incriminating materials against the “Great Khan”. And if something happens, he will have something to tell the investigation.

As the Komsomolets of Kalmykia newspaper wrote, former folk dance performer Igor Shalkhakov owns large bank accounts and real estate in the USA, Spain and Cyprus, an elite apartment in a prestigious area in the south-west of Moscow and a network of entertainment establishments in Elista. Igor Batyrevich is also the largest cattle owner in Kalmykia. For information: fat herds of many thousands are grazed not by local shepherds, but by guest workers hired for a pittance.

The failed dancer still controls one of Kirsan’s “secret pockets” - a structure called the “Kalmyk Business Center”, created, by all indications, to launder money passing through the bottomless Kalmyk offshore. By the way, for several years in a row this “mini-laundry” was run by the sister of Shalkhakov’s wife, Valentina. Now she is Abushinova’s neighbor in an elite house. However, the liquidation of the offshore did not prevent the Bureau of Business Center from quickly re-profiling. In this case, contrary to the proverb, nothing stopped the dancer. After all, in Kalmykia there are other resources for development - oil, gas, drugs, “scorched” vodka and sturgeon fish.

Let's say, in 2004, Ilyumzhinov's people, under the leadership of Shalkhakov, carried out a raider takeover, taking away the oil business from the owner of the Kalmneft company, Vladimir Boldyrev, and putting Boldyrev himself behind bars on trumped-up charges. And the funds allocated annually from the federal budget for the survival of a depressed subsidized region are perceived by Ilyumzhinov’s circle as an inexhaustible source for personal enrichment.

Igor Shalkhakov also “lit up” in the “pipe-digging” business. Some time ago, on the direct instructions of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the company “Victoria K” was registered in Kalmykia (they say this means “victory of Kirsan”). In 2005, through unknown means, this company received a license “to purchase 14 kilometers of used pipes from the Northern Group Pipeline.” The license was signed personally by Valery Bovaev, then Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The author of the “creative idea” is now retired Minister of Construction of the Republic of Kazakhstan Alik Dolgin. The direct supervisor of the project is Mr. Shalkhakov.

By the way, Igor Batyrevich supervised the process (more precisely, he was the “supervisor”) since the time when local bandits (including from the Arshansky group, after the name of the Arshan village) were engaged in “digging”, hiring homeless people for excavation work - for “ burnt swill and crappy snacks. Part of the bandit money from the sale of stolen national property went, among other things, to the construction of Buddhist temples.

The whole issue is that the pipes of the northern pipeline are federal property. The Volga-Chogray canal was designed to water the parched Kalmyk steppe with Volga water. The facility was built until the early 90s with money from the state budget. But due to the collapse of the Union, construction was not completed. So, it turns out that the pipes being dug today can hardly be called “second-hand”. They've just never been used.

During the period of “digging”, at least 156 km of pipes were dumped to the left (11 times more than provided for by the license). “Victoria K” pays the team of Dagestanis performing the work 1 ruble each. 45 kopecks for 1 kg of “mined” iron. And he sells it, in turn, to a certain Dagestan company for 6 rubles. for 1 kg. Not such a small thing, considering that one linear meter of pipe contains 250 kg of metal, and excavations have been going on for three years now, in four regions of the republic. Net profit - over 1.2 million rubles. for 1 km.

The diggers are protected (essentially, “protected”) by the head of the Republican Department of Economic Crimes, Valery Chudutov, who was promoted to a high post under the patronage of Ilyumzhinov. Chudutov regularly personally inspects the “facility”, accompanied by Kalmyk police and traffic police officers. The head of the OBEP, apparently, often carries out special assignments from Ilyumzhinov. So, last week he came to Stavropol with a group of operatives with the aim of illegally detaining Radiy Burulov, who was in a hospital with a serious cardiac disease. Fortunately for the mayor of Elista, the doctors of the Stavropol clinic managed to defend their patient.

Back in the fall of 2007, Moscow demanded that the Kalmyk government take over all federal pipelines for the republic. But the current Prime Minister Vladimir Sengleyev categorically refused to sign the acceptance certificate. This is understandable - there is practically nothing to take on balance. Everything has been stolen.

In the spring of this year, an FSB team was sent from Moscow to check the situation with the safety of the northern pipeline. It turned out that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov officially transferred part of the funds from the illegal sale of government pipes to the account of the local branch FIDE (World Chess Federation). The head of the Elista branch of FIDE, Vyacheslav Namruev, is in charge of the cash flows that have literally gone down the drain.

In the meantime, FSB officers checked the legality of investment projects in the Republic of Kazakhstan. It became known that only at the time when the Kalmyk Business Center was nominally headed by Valentina Dordzhieva (sister of Igor Shalkhakov’s wife), the KBC did not pay taxes to the state in the amount of 450 million rubles. It was also revealed that criminal schemes for offshore money laundering were developed during the period when the director of the KBC was the current Prime Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Vladimir Sengleyev. By the way, he is a certified economist and an old friend of Ilyumzhinov.

Poaching of sturgeon fish in the republic is left to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s classmate, chairman of the Kalmyk State Television and Radio Company Evgeniy Unkurov. Of course, for substantial kickbacks in favor of the “steppe khan”. Mr. Unkurov owns the fishing enterprise “Red Sailor”, based in the Caspian city of Lagan (it was in Lagan that Kirsan once promised to build an international port, and it is still there). Concurrently, Evgeniy Semenovich is the founder of a private security structure. And in addition, he is the general supplier for the “Khan’s court” of VIP whores, consumed by high-ranking guests of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan, greedy for “oriental exotica”.

The extended Davashkin family is not in poverty either - relatives of Danara Davashkina, the wife of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the mother of his only son, 19-year-old David, a MGIMO student and a big fan of street racing in Elista at night. In 2005, the “steppe infanta” was beaten by drunken policemen for recklessly speeding. Kirsan immediately turned to the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Rashid Nurgaliev, demanding the dismissal of the head of the Kalmyk Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Ponomarev. By the way, two years earlier in Elista, drunken cops crippled a promising scientist, candidate of historical sciences, Sergei Shirokov. However, Ilyumzhinov did not respond in any way to the tearful requests of the victim’s mother to bring the perpetrators to justice.

Kirsan has not lived with his overweight housewife wife for a long time. According to rumors, he also has not reacted to women for a long time, but he still takes care of his own little people. Don’t point at any of the Davashkins – they’re all businessmen or officials. And their family character is appropriate. Perhaps it was not for nothing that the representatives of the Davashkin clan were popularly nicknamed “Berushkins”. According to the Russian analogy of the first syllables of the Kalmyk surname. They say they don’t give anything to anyone, but “they take everything from life.”

A logical question: where do the representatives of the Ilyumzhinov clan get such appetites? And this, by all estimates, is hereditary. Nikolai Dorzhinovich Ilyumzhinov, the father of three sons - Vyacheslav (senior), Kirsan (middle) and Sanal (junior) - flourished during the Soviet era, heading the department of industry and transport of the Elista city committee of the CPSU. Need I mention how potentially corrupt this position was, especially in a republic with an Eastern mentality?

These days, Nikolai Dorzhinovich is on a well-deserved rest. True, out of boredom he sits on the board of the Committee for Supporting Reforms of the first President of Kalmykia (that is, his own son), from time to time, signing statements against the opposition to newspapers and law enforcement agencies. And in 1997, the KPRPPK became famous for its dense obscurantism: its members burned copies of the newspaper “Komsomolskaya Pravda” on the central square of Elista, with material about endemic corruption in the republic.

Ilyumzhinov the ancestor does not shy away from creative writing. In his old age, imagining himself to be a brave Don Cossack, Nikolai Dorzhinovich uses budget money to hire “literary blacks” from among local journalists. And they regularly, 2-3 a year, churn out “historical monographs” under his name. It would seem that this is not the most harmful activity for a pensioner. But students of Kalmyk educational institutions, who are forced to attend tedious presentations of “imperishables” under threat of expulsion, do not think so at all.

The mother of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Rimma Alekseevna, a powerful woman, intolerant of other people’s opinions and people of other nationalities, made all the key decisions in the family of the future Kalmyk “khan”. For many years she worked as a veterinarian at the Elista meat processing plant (later bankrupt and looted by Ilyumzhinov’s associates), from where she was fired on suspicion of extorting bribes from meat suppliers.

Kirsan, like a grateful son, hired his old mother, who did not want to retire, as a veterinarian at the Central Market of Elista, owned, again, by a classmate of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Vyacheslav Deldinov. Whether Rimma Alekseevna took bribes, history is silent. But from now on, according to eyewitnesses, not a single meat merchant was allowed to trade until he paid off either in cash or with a good piece of a pair of tenderloins. Where to go, the goods are perishable...

What about Kirsan’s older brother, Vyacheslav? He once competed with Kirsan in every way. In the late 90s, a cunning brother smuggled Vyachik (as he was nicknamed in Elista), accused by the media of direct involvement in the murder of a journalist Larisa Yudina, beyond the Arctic Circle - Deputy Governor of the Nenets Autonomous Okrug Vladimir Butov, who previously served 8 years for theft, poaching and other good deeds. After this, people from Kirsan’s circle received the right to develop a number of oil fields in the district.

Several years ago, Vyacheslav Ilyumzhinov’s career was unexpectedly interrupted. He was diagnosed with a progressive mental disorder. Now he hardly recognizes anyone, and spends most of his time in foreign clinics. Occasionally he is brought home to Elista, to his luxurious parental home on Polina Osipenko Street, but is not shown to any strangers. Exclusively – to all kinds of “traditional healers” and other charlatans. The sad fate of the once all-powerful official in Kalmykia...

The following legend, walking around the steppe region, is associated with my brother’s illness. Allegedly, while in the Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Vyacheslav, who was very partial to the female sex (in particular, his mistresses at one time included the former TV presenter of Channel 1, former State Duma deputy and former leader of the youth “Unity” Alexandra Burataeva), entered into a relationship with a local resident against her will. And she, unfortunately, turned out to be the daughter of a famous Nenets shaman. The angry shaman, in a fit of rage, cursed the rapist. Vyacheslav eventually became very ill, and brother Kirsan had to atone for his sins by rebuilding Buddhist temples...

Let's attribute all this flowery gossip to rich folk imagination - with lies, hints, lessons and everything else. The time has come to try to answer the question: why has Kirsan Ilyumzhinov managed to remain on the throne for more than 15 years, and at the same time shamelessly deceive the federal authorities?

A worldwide scarecrow

Kirsan lied to the Kremlin countless times, so it’s sickening to remember everything at once. It would be nice to dwell on that highly remarkable case when a cunning Kalmyk businessman (it would be hard to call him a politician) publicly, in an extremely cynical and rude form, expressing disrespect for the entire Russian society, defrauded the GDP itself.

Here's what the press wrote roughly in 2005: “Vladimir Putin met with the head of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. During the negotiations, Ilyumzhinov made a tempting, at first glance, proposal to the President of the Russian Federation: to create a “Russian meat belt” on the basis of the republic.
The head of Kalmykia expressed his firm belief that “in four to five years, half of the Russian population’s need for meat can be met.” According to Mr. Ilyumzhinov, “previously, the number of cattle in Russia was about 7.5 million heads, but currently it has decreased to 350 thousand. And half of them are of the Kalmyk breed.”

The National Meat Association of Russia immediately refuted Ilyumzhinov’s statement, calling his words “nonsense”: “Where do these 7.5 million and 350 thousand that Mr. Ilyumzhinov told the president about come from?! In Russia there were 52 million heads, and now there are 22 million. The head of Kalmykia is probably not aware that today 70% of the meat market is made up of domestic products. What other “half of the country’s needs” he decided to “cover” is completely unclear. Modern meat farming requires developed infrastructure, quality management, competition - and in Kalmykia there is not even water!”

To put it mildly, Kirsan Nikolaevich did not tell the truth about the number of livestock kept in Kalmykia. According to the All-Russian Agricultural Census, as of July 1, 2006, in state agricultural organizations and peasant farms in Kalmykia, the number of cattle (cattle) was 93,782 heads and 68,459 heads, respectively, sheep and goats - more than 792 thousand and more than 575 thousand ( and not over 2 million, as Ilyumzhinov boasted left and right). Where the “350 thousand heads of cattle” came from is a sealed secret. And, of course, Kirsan has not yet created any “meat belt”. Yes, apparently, he didn’t intend to: creating anything was completely not his style.

Has Vladimir Vladimirovich, even though he has moved to the prime minister’s chair, forgotten about this blatant deception? Somehow I can’t believe it. Security officers have a professional memory. Of course, Kirsan has intercessors like representatives of the Yeltsin “family”, or the deputy head of the presidential administration, Vyacheslav Surkov. But these (we don’t take Surkov into account) patrons were, for example, Berezovsky. This means that the secret of Ilyumzhinov’s political longevity lies in a slightly different plane. Question: which one?

Last year, a real sensation was caused by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s statement about his intention to resettle Kalmyks from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the PRC to Kalmykia. I remember that the Kalmyk opposition howled in unison: they say that there is not enough work for the local residents in the republic, and then there are these people who have come in large numbers. However, this is what is said in the analytical note of the FSB Directorate for the Republic of Kazakhstan, prepared for Moscow. In some places this document is entitled “On the possibility of relocating part of the Kalmyks from China to Russia" reads like an exciting detective story (provided with significant abbreviations):

“...China is one of the few countries whose views on the world around them, and with them their foreign policy doctrine, have remained unchanged for centuries... Chinese history is replete with examples of the cruelest attitude of its military administration towards enslaved peoples... In this regard, one should not be deluded by illusory ideas, as if, having joined the achievements of technogenic civilization, China will part with its historically established doctrines and overcome “Great Han chauvinism.” Quite the contrary: the lack of democratic traditions and the intoxication of economic success may once again encourage China to oppose itself to the rest of the world...

...The first attempts to resettle Kalmyks from China were made in the early 90s. XX century, when about 60 families from Xinjiang arrived for permanent residence in the Republic of Kazakhstan. Not all of them were able to settle down in their new place, since K. Ilyumzhinov repealed the local “Law on Citizenship,” which provided for the opportunity for Kalmyk migrants to obtain Russian citizenship. Nevertheless, a large number of Kalmyks in China do not give up hope of returning to Russia. Unlike the indigenous Russian Kalmyks, their fellow tribesmen in China are distinguished by great hard work and discipline. Their Buddhism, which has always coexisted peacefully with Orthodoxy, has a deeper spiritual component than that of their brethren in Russia, who have fully “tasted the delights” of state atheism...

...It is possible that the new leadership of the PRC, looking into the future, foresees a development of the situation in which China will need closer cooperation with Russia. In this case, Kalmyks... can provide mediation services in resolving the most complex issues, especially since Kalmyks from ancient times performed Chinese ambassadorial functions at the Russian royal court...

...China lacks experience in democratic reforms, and without this it can hardly hope to increase the competitiveness of its goods and services on the world market. But as soon as China begins democratic reforms, the Xinjiang problem immediately arises. For China, the XUAR is the same as the North Caucasus for Russia, even something more, given the vast territories occupied by the XUAR and the presence in it of an overwhelming number of people professing Islam...

...China borders the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, where Taliban detachments are hiding. It is from here that we can expect the next wave of Islamic extremism and separatism, which... could cover the entire north-west of China, where the most backward and poor peoples live... In these conditions, Kalmyk Buddhists can provide an invaluable service as a nation that has been restraining Islamic Islam for several centuries expansion to the East...

The problem of Islamic extremism in Russia is no less acute. Some political scientists and demographers believe that in a few decades Russia will turn into a bi-confessional state, and by the end of this century Islam will become the dominant religion in Russia.

It is no secret that in the North Caucasus, Wahhabism, the most militant and uncompromising movement of Islam, is seizing more and more bridgeheads. Next in line is Kalmykia, where, not without the support of K. Ilyumzhinov, streams of immigrants from Chechnya and the mountainous regions of the North Caucasus poured. Only for the period 1999 – 2002. the number of Chechens alone increased from 3 thousand to 15 thousand people.

In the fall of 2001, for the first time in the history of Kalmykia, 10 Kalmyk children, with the sponsorship of Sheikh Narayan, the holder of finances in the royal house of Abu Dhabi, were sent to study in the UAE, where Wahhabism is the state religion. And at the beginning of 2002, Elista was visited by Al-Qaeda representative Gholam Haidar, who had a private conversation with the President of Kalmykia.

During the first Chechen war, K. Ilyumzhinov was closely associated with A. Maskhadov, Sh. Basayev, A. Movsaev. His representative in the Federation Council was R.E. Iskhakov, who used his planes to supply weapons to the Taliban and Uyghur separatists in China. ...The trend of gradual Islamization of Kalmykia and close interaction of its current leadership with international Islamic centers is clearly visible.

The possible implementation of plans to resettle Chinese Kalmyks to their historical homeland may interfere with the plans of the Wahhabists to advance deeper into Russia. Chinese Kalmyks, to a much greater extent than their Russian counterparts, are immunized against Islam... Currently, more than half a million Kalmyks live in China, that is, more than three times more than in Kalmykia itself...

Considering the fact of full interaction between the Chinese state apparatus and intelligence services, it will be necessary to establish control over future migrants by the FSB Directorate. However, according to data available from the FSB Directorate for the Republic of Kazakhstan, visiting Kalmyks during their more than 10-year stay in Russia were not caught in contacts with Chinese intelligence services. While there is a significant number of confirmed facts of cooperation between employees of the apparatus of the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan, his associates, and himself, with emissaries of Islamic extremist organizations, employees of foreign intelligence services and functionaries of foreign non-governmental organizations involved in the activities of the intelligence services."

What, the Kremlin doesn’t know about these extravagances? Also doubtful. It’s just that Russia’s foreign policy, for many years now, has traditionally failed on all counts. And in order to somehow “keep face,” the department on Smolenskaya Square increasingly has to use particularly “crazy” politicians for its own interests, often presented as the interests of Russia. Capable of speaking out sharply, on the one hand, as private individuals, regardless of the Foreign Ministry, and on the other hand, playing the role of a bogeyman on a global scale.

Fortunately for the country, there are not very many such politicians in Russia. One, for example, stubbornly hammers home the “Ukrainian theme.” He makes wild nonsense that is forcing Ukraine into NATO. And in exchange for this I received the right accumulate personal billions in spouse's accounts, non-volumetric along and across. A sort of Ivan Kalita on the contrary - not for Muscovites, but for his womb and family, twelve knees ahead.

The second, hooting protractedly like an elderly eagle owl suffering from chronic constipation, scares the world with the rotten bogeyman of communism, supposedly capable of returning to power in Russia. The third is generally pathologically intemperate with his tongue: he once swore at the leader of the most impudent world power while sitting freely on the toilet. Both - the constipated owl and the over-the-top foul-mouthed one - received for their invaluable services the leadership of stably funded political parties, consolidated by those voting in the State Duma for the decisions of the Kremlin.

Kirsan occupies a special, honorable place in this series. Kalmykia is a small republic. The electorate living there, as well as the natural resources there, do not represent any value for the Kremlin. But it is quite possible to use the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan as a bogeyman in the eastern direction. Brush away the dandruff of the day before yesterday from the collar of a fashionable suit. Insert an electronic prompter into your ear. Pump up with energy drinks a skeleton that has become mossy in a civil service devoid of sports movement. Quickly give a lecture about the pan-Asian destiny of the Kalmyks. And it’s ready – you can fearlessly release it onto the international stage.

Oddly enough, such a dubious position periodically pays off. Kirsan Nikolaevich, shouting to the whole world, demands a Russian visa for the “world leader of Buddhists in exile” Dalai Lama XIV (Kalmyks - predominantly Buddhist). The Chinese are making a fuss and screaming indignantly. For three months in a row, the Russian Foreign Ministry has been pretending to be interested in considering the proposal of a “private individual,” and a chess player at that (what can one take from him?).

As a result, the Russian Federation firmly refuses to allow the Dalai Lama to visit the country. And then he immediately receives a multi-billion dollar (in dollars) contract from the Chinese – let’s say, for the supply of obsolete Russian weapons. Why not lafa? True, sometimes, once every five years, Russia gives the go-ahead for the Dalai Lama to visit. But even this is so that the Chinese do not relax.

Those who, after this passage, think that the Chinese are complete idiots should hang themselves. The fact is that in China the Dalai Lama is perceived in approximately the same way as the Russians perceive Shamil Basayev (let us recall, for example, the “uprising” of the Tibetans in the spring of this year, inspired from abroad). And the PRC authorities consider it a matter of honor to play a dirty trick on terrorists. So Kirsan can sometimes be useful for Russia. As a kind of irritant and catalyst for international transactions, such as the sale of used pipes from the Volga - Chograi canal...

...They say that on July 3, 2008, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who not so long ago took the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan with him on a trip to Kazakhstan and China, is expecting Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in the Kremlin. I wonder if Dmitry Anatolyevich will give Kirsan Nikolaevich a knee in the ass, giving him an honorary sinecure as a consolation? Or has a new task of particular importance in the “eastern direction” already been selected for the head of the Republic of Kazakhstan?

Ruslana Zemlyanikina

How does Kirsan Ilyumzhinov earn money?

Over the past couple of months, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has announced billions of dollars in investments. Where will he get that kind of money? They won’t be needed - after all, in most cases, Ilyumzhinov acts as a lobbyist and intermediary

It is difficult to find Ilyumzhinov in Moscow. According to him, he spends two-thirds of the year at negotiations abroad, and a third on flights around Russia. “My office is a mobile phone,” jokes Ilyumzhinov. To meet with the Vedomosti journalist, he chose the Klopovskaya estate - a two-story mansion on Goncharnaya Street (near the high-rise building on Kotelnicheskaya Embankment).

“This is the office of my partner Abusupyan Kharkharov,” says Ilyumzhinov. “Now we have several joint projects 50/50.” After some time, Kharkharov himself, the former director of the Makhachkala seaport, and now co-owner of the Safinat investment and logistics group, comes down to say hello to Ilyumzhinov. Safinat has its own fleet of 22 vessels in the Caspian Sea and investment projects in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan and Europe.

For two months now, the name of the President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and ex-President of Kalmykia Ilyumzhinov has not left the pages of business publications. On June 19, it became known that he was buying 52% of the second largest fuel retailer in Bulgaria, Petrol Holding. July 10 - that he became a shareholder in the French Sucden, one of the world's largest sugar traders. July 13 - that Ilyumzhinov with the British Ashmore Group is creating a $1 billion fund with the prospect of growth to $10 billion. And three days later, at a meeting with the President of Pakistan, Ilyumzhinov announced plans to invest $5.5 billion in the Thar coal deposit.

“Ilyumzhinov’s notebook contains half of the Forbes list, and on different pages there are the names of people who have been at enmity with each other for many years,” says his acquaintance. - Ilyumzhinov gets involved in conflict situations and helps the warring parties come to an agreement. You can make money from this or just get a share in the company.” Another acquaintance is sure that Ilyumzhinov does not invest his money at all, but always receives a share: “He is not an investor - he is a shareholder.” A third says that he still invests: “Ilyumzhinov is a walking investment bank: he finds a topic, organizes a deal and co-invests. Somewhere more than 50%, somewhere 10-15%.”

Where does the money come from? Ilyumzhinov jokes that back in 1993 he became a billionaire - although in rubles and before the denomination.

First million

One day in the fall of 1993, people armed with machine guns burst into the Lyrus Motor car dealership at the All-Russian Exhibition Center. They laid the employees face down on the floor and announced: “Now we are your roof, the payment is every tenth car.” One of the employees asked permission to call the owner of the salon, Ilyumzhinov. “I was in the Metropol then and invited the bandits to come for money. They arrived, we talked and went our separate ways. I didn’t give any money or cars to anyone,” recalls Ilyumzhinov. He says that this was not the only case: “They came to me, I knew everyone and now I can call everyone by their nickname, but I didn’t pay anyone.”

27-year-old MGIMO graduate Ilyumzhinov earned his first $1 million a year after graduating from the institute. In 1989, he got a job at the Soviet-Japanese joint venture Liko-Rainbow, which was engaged in purchasing Volkswagen and Audi through Finland. “They paid 6-10% for the cars sold. I took a directory of enterprises engaged in foreign economic activity, and the first one I came across was NLMK,” recalls Ilyumzhinov. - In the USSR at that time there were no dollars in free circulation, and enterprises selling their products abroad received a quota for the purchase of consumer goods. Someone bought down jackets, and I suggested NLMK Volkswagen and Audi. The directors agreed." Car sales went up in the hundreds.

After leaving Liko-Raduga in 1990, Ilyumzhinov became a deputy of the Supreme Council of the USSR, created the Sun corporation and went into business. Now he has difficulty remembering his assets from the 1990s: “New Look” newspaper, “Ovation” award, slot machines in the “Izmailovo” hotel, share in TV-6, Sochi television company, trading house on the street. Dmitry Ulyanov, the Russian Paper exchange, the Hyundai dealer - the same Lyrus Motor, the first sushi bar in Moscow with karaoke on Taganka... They traded a lot of things, even pencils against cockroaches.” In 1993, Ilyumzhinov said that he had about 50 companies with an annual turnover of $500 million.

Offshore republic

In 1993, with the slogan “A rich president is an incorruptible power” and a promise to make Kuwait a republic, Ilyumzhinov won the elections and became president of Kalmykia for 17 years. To make Kalmykia Kuwait, he first made it an offshore.

It all started, Ilyumzhinov recalls, when acquaintances from his student years came to visit him - Valery Tutykhin, Boris Lipkin, Sergey Mamedov, Alexey Kucherenko and Berik Balgabaev (they later became ministers of Kalmykia, heads of state-owned companies or advisers to Ilyumzhinov). “They registered a law firm in Elista and said: let’s do something. I suggested that they create an offshore zone,” recalls Ilyumzhinov.

In 1994, the Kalmyk offshore began operating. Companies registered in it, instead of local taxes, made contributions to the President's Program Fund - $1,250 per quarter. The Kommersant-Vlast magazine estimated the fund's annual income at $20 million. This scheme lasted until 1998, when, at the request of the Yabloko party, the Accounts Chamber came to Kalmykia. Before the arrival of the auditors, the Presidential Program Fund was liquidated (along with its archives), and the fund's bank documents were lost - a sewer broke.

In 1999, MGIMO graduates launched a new scheme. Kalmykia adopted the law “On tax incentives for enterprises investing in the economy of Kalmykia,” according to which investors were exempt from local taxes. There were 16 investment projects that gave the right to benefits, totaling $820 million. The most popular among resident companies was the Kalmyk Business Center project on the territory of the City Chess chess town built in 1998. The Ministry of Investment Policy of Kalmykia entered into an agreement with the company, which indicated the amount of quarterly payments. The minimum payment was $300, the maximum was $3000.

According to a lawyer who worked with Russian offshore companies in those years, there were other, unofficial payments: the authorities of Kalmykia constantly demanded additional payments, the amount of which was determined personally for each investor. But in any case, it was profitable: the tax savings were huge. Thus, the company "Asta-trade" (TNK-BP trader) in 2002-2003. paid the business center 1.9 million rubles, saving 1.9 billion rubles. on profit.

It all ended in 2002, when tax laws changed. This is where a trap for investors came into play. Since 2003, Kalmyk tax officials have bombarded the court with claims against the “investors” of the Kalmyk Business Center. They refused to recognize the “payment for services” of the center, and payments were made out exactly that way - as investments. And they sued for unpaid taxes. Asta-Trade was eventually ordered to return 4.65 billion rubles, and the company went bankrupt. In most of the cases studied by Vedomosti, the amount of taxes is much less - hundreds of thousands of rubles. But the contributions were also smaller: the minimum was $300 per quarter.

Ilyumzhinov says that during the work of the offshore zone in Kalmykia, he met all the participants in the Forbes list. “Some of them at that time came to Elista in Zhiguli cars,” he recalls.

Chess Republic

President Ilyumzhinov made Kalmykia not only an offshore republic, but also a chess republic. He has been interested in chess since childhood; at the age of 14 he was the champion of Kalmykia. And in 1995 he became president twice - he headed FIDE. In 1998, the World Chess Olympiad was held in the City Chess offshore, built using royalties from offshore residents.

Chess helps Ilyumzhinov in business. “Ilyumzhinov is known all over the world,” says his friend, the first legal Soviet millionaire Artem Tarasov. - He is the president of FIDE, which includes the chess federations of most countries. There are many countries where top officials, bankers, and billionaires are fond of chess. It’s like a Masonic lodge: those who don’t play chess don’t know anything about these people.”

Photo from the website www.kalmykiatour.com

With Tarasov, Ilyumzhinov tried to launch chess Internet projects back in 1999. “I then met with [Microsoft owner] Bill Gates, but he said that it was technically impossible to create an Internet platform for 100 million chess players,” Ilyumzhinov recalls.

Chess brought Ilyumzhinov together not only with Gates. The President of the Asian Chess Federation is another of his acquaintances - the Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa al-Nahyan (the same one who helped share the business of Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky). “I’ve known many of them since the 1990s,” says Ilyumzhinov. - For example, we have long been friends with the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the UAE, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak al-Nahyan, he came to Kalmykia to hunt. Nahyan has about 560 of his own companies. Now I have offered him to become a co-investor in some projects.”

Ilyumzhinov also met with the President of Pakistan in July as FIDE President. After discussing the development of chess in the country, the parties moved on to investment projects. On behalf of the Swiss Credit Mediterranee, Ilyumzhinov proposed investing $5.5 billion in the Thar coal deposit. Credit Mediterranee was registered in Geneva in March last year. According to one of the directors of this company, it manages a fund with a capital of about $2.5 billion and Ilyumzhinov is only one of the investors, and his partners are “multi-millionaires from Southeast Asia and Arab countries.”

Vietnam project

In May 2010, former Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet came to visit President Ilyumzhinov for fishing and hunting. At the same time, they discussed the possibility of building Vietnam Town in Kalmykia and developing several Russian projects in Vietnam.

At the same time, Ilyumzhinov’s friends also came to the republic on vacation - the founder of the Ru-com group Mikhail Abyzov, the co-owner of the Alltek group Dmitry Bosov and the latter’s partner in telecommunications Evgeny Roitman. In an interview with Vedomosti, Nguyen Minh Triet, when asked about the investments of Ru-com and Alltek, then answered evasively: “There is no specific information, but we support investments in telecommunications and high technology projects.”

A few months after the hunt, RusViet Telecom (part of Alltek) received a test license to build an LTE network in Vietnam, and in October 2010 the network went live in Hanoi. According to Roitman, Ilyumzhinov is one of the shareholders of Alltek Telecom, which is developing telecommunications projects in Southeast Asia.

Bulgarian project

“I knew Denis Ershov and Mitko Sybev [co-owners of Bulgarian Petrol] for a long time,” says Ilyumzhinov. According to Ilyumzhinov, “Sybev and Ershov two years ago disagreed on the continuation of the business.” Due to the conflict, the company had financial problems - banks stopped lending.

“Sergey Baturin [former consultant of Ilyumzhinov], Volk Khan [world champion in ultimate fighting, businessman Magometkhan Gamzathanov] and another comrade from Bulgaria came to me and said: maybe you’ll take a look?” - recalls Ilyumzhinov.

According to Ershov, negotiations with Ilyumzhinov began in March. “The deal is actually closed, but consultations are still ongoing,” says Ershov. “After the corporate war, there are many controversial situations that Ilyumzhinov will have to resolve.”

Petrol is the second largest fuel trader in Bulgaria after Lukoil. It has, according to Ilyumzhinov, 361 gas stations, 80 oil storage facilities, three port terminals, plus non-core assets (land, an airline with five aircraft, hotels, a football club and a stadium).

In June, Ilyumzhinov announced that Credit Mediterranee had bought out the shares of Ershov (47.5%) and Alexander Melnik (5%) and began negotiations with Sybev. According to Ilyumzhinov, he has already agreed with Sybev to sign settlement agreements on 17 claims - this is how many former co-owners of Petrol managed to file against each other - and the terms of Sybev’s exit from the business are now being discussed. It was not possible to contact Sybev, but he confirmed to the Bulgarian newspaper Capital Daily that he was negotiating with Ilyumzhinov about the sale of his share.

What will Ilyumzhinov do with Petrol? There is another investor in the Petrol project, says Ilyumzhinov: “The partner said: “Come on, Kirsan, figure it out, and then I’ll go in.” Ilyumzhinov has already consulted about Petrol with his “long-time and respected friend” Vagit Alekperov, the owner of Lukoil. But Lukoil is unlikely to be allowed to buy Petrol by Bulgarian officials - they even now accuse it of monopolism. In 2010, negotiations on the purchase of gas stations from Petrol were conducted by Gazprom Neft, but they did not end in anything.

French project

“A few months ago in Paris, an old acquaintance, businessman Pyotr Panteleev, introduced me to the president and co-owner of Sucden, Serge Vorsano,” says Ilyumzhinov. “Vorsano wanted to seek advice on business in Russia and other countries.” The conversation quickly moved from the abstract to the concrete, and Ilyumzhinov, according to him, was offered to become a shareholder of Sucden. In July, Ilyumzhinov announced that he had become one of the trader’s “key shareholders.” Why did one of the world's largest sugar traders need Ilyumzhinov's help?

The company has problems with the largest of its three factories in Russia - Dobrinsky (located in the Lipetsk region). The Cyprus company Endorsia bought the rights to claim the plant for approximately 0.5 billion rubles. and sued him for another 2 billion rubles. Endorsia's interests were represented in court by former Alfa Bank lawyer Sergei Fedosov, Vedomosti's source in Sucden knows. And the Cypriot address of Endorsia coincides with the addresses of the Alfa Group structures. An Alfa Bank representative declined to comment.

Ilyumzhinov did not tell Vedomosti how he plans to resolve the current situation. “We hope that it will be quite effective,” Etienne Pelletier, director of Sucden’s Russian office, told Bloomberg.

A representative of the Russian Sucden declined to comment officially. A source in the Russian Sucden assures that Ilyumzhinov is not among the co-owners of either the parent or the Russian structure: “Panteleev brought Ilyumzhinov to Vorsano, and they talked, but he does not provide any assistance in resolving the corporate conflict.”

Ilyumzhinov assures that he has a share in Sucden and is already preparing several projects to expand Sucden’s business: “We are planning to build three sugar factories in the Stavropol region, we are considering options in Kazakhstan and Pakistan.”

Panteleev has his own version - Sucden will act as a technical consultant, and he and Ilyumzhinov will build the plants: “The investments will come from the fund created by the Ashmore Group and Ilyumzhinov, and we also count on significant government support.”