Kirsan Ilyumzhinov Names His Team for FIDE Presidential Elections

His press conference takes place at Interfax agency in Moscow. 

«The budget of my pre-election program is 10 million euro. I decided to declare my presidential ticket, my team with which I will run in the FIDE presidential elections", says Kirsan Ilyumzhinov at his press conference at Interfax agency in Moscow on April 26. 

Presidential ticket of Ilyumzhinov includes Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kosovo Behgjet Pacolli as Deputy President, Vice-President of Executive council of Office of American Innovation, member of Writers Guild of America, member of the board of Lauder Institute of University of Pennsylvania Glen Stark (USA) as Secretary General, Thai Princess, member of the royal family, a famous philanthropist and businesswoman Rajadarasri Jayankura (Thailand), general producer of the European Film Association, member of the board of the Belgian Institute of Fine Arts Inal Sheripov (Belgium) as Vice-Presidents, engineer, Doctor of Science, plenipotentiary minister, director of the university and educational mission of Tunisia in Paris Takhar Battikh (Tunisia) as Treasurer. 

According to Ilyumzhinov's application, Vice-President of the Chess Federation of Azerbaijan Mahir Mammedov (Azerbaijan), Vice-President of the Armenian Chess Federation Smbat Lputian (Armenia), and President of the Chinese Chess Association Yang Junan (China) have become nominated Vice-Presidents.

Former chief Treasurer of FIDE Willy Icklicki (Belgium) is announced as Executive Director, while former press secretary of the Asian Chess Federation Philip Alimo (Ghana) - as Press Officer. 

Ilyumzhinov also named sponsors who will help him in his fight for the FIDE Presidency and form a FIDE budget in case of a victory: ROEL Group and its president Vladimir Dorokhin in person, His Serene Highness Prince Visesh Sakdi Jayankura & Her Serene Highness Princess Chaliyao Varnamala Jayankura' Foundation, Behgjet Pacolli Foundation (Switzerland), Kirsan Foundation (USA), Inal Sharipov Foundation (Belgium), and Ivan Savvidi's Group of Companies (Greece).  

FIDE Presidential elections will take place during the World Chess Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia, on October 3, 2018. The second candidate so far is FIDE Vice-President Georgios Makropoulos. According to the FIDE Statute, all candidates for the position of the FIDE President should declare their intentions and introduce their team (presidential ticket) not later than three months before the elections.