FIDE presidential candidate Timur Turlov has said Russia's invasion of Ukraine was behind his decision to give up his Russian citizenship, saying he wanted to "build bridges, not to explode them".
The Moscow-born billionaire, who is running against Jan Henric Buettner and Wadim Rosenstein to become the next president of world chess, renounced his Russian citizenship after the full-scale invasion began in 2022 and became a citizen of Kazakhstan.
Now, with his background becoming an issue in an increasingly bitter FIDE election campaign, Turlov has spoken in unusually forthright terms about why in an AMA posted on X.
"I had too many friends in Ukraine and was shocked by this war," Turlov said. "I definitely don't want to be part of all of that, what happens in Russia."
He added: "I don't understand what Putin wants, what he is doing."
Turlov said he had spent much of his career building connections between the U.S., Europe, Central Asia and Eastern Europe but decided after the invasion that what he had built no longer aligned with Russia's direction.
"And I want to continue to build bridges, not to explode them," he said.
The Russia question
The comments matter because Turlov's relationship with Russia has become one of the key questions surrounding his campaign to replace Arkady Dvorkovich as FIDE President. Whether they will be accepted by his critics, is another matter.
Turlov was born in Moscow but has lived in Kazakhstan since 2011. He says he renounced his Russian and St Kitts and Nevis citizenships in 2022 and became a Kazakh citizen. His Freedom Holding Corp subsequently sold its Russian operations, completing the disposal in February 2023.
But his opponents have been probing those links.
Earlier this month, rival candidate Rosenstein formally called for FIDE's Electoral Commission—and, where appropriate, the Court of Arbitration for Sport—to examine a series of questions surrounding Turlov.
Among them was a demand for evidence that Turlov had indeed been released from Russian citizenship.
Turlov's representatives have rejected suggestions that he remains a Russian citizen. According to documents reported by Perlen vom Bodensee, his team produced a certification from the Russian Consulate General in Almaty stating that, as of February 16, 2023, Turlov was not a Russian citizen.
Turlov himself has also publicly displayed his Kazakh passport and stressed that it is Kazakhstan he represents.
"I am a citizen of Kazakhstan," he said earlier this month, pointing to the country's policy of maintaining relationships across geopolitical divides.
From Dvorkovich's deputy to his successor
The question is particularly sensitive because Turlov was originally not supposed to be running for FIDE President at all.
He entered the race as Dvorkovich's candidate for Deputy President. Then everything changed and he became the accidental candidate.
The European Union sanctioned Dvorkovich in July over his links to the Russian state and his position on the war in Ukraine. The former Russian deputy prime minister suspended himself from his FIDE duties and abandoned his bid for a third presidential term.
Turlov stepped up to run for president instead, with five-time World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand—Dvorkovich's former deputy and now FIDE's interim president—joining his ticket.
That has left Turlov in an unusual position.
He can credibly point to a significant personal break with Russia: he gave up his citizenship, sold his Russian business and has now publicly criticised the logic behind Vladimir Putin's invasion.
Yet politically within chess, Turlov represents the clearest continuation of the administration Dvorkovich built.
This week, Dvorkovich spoke to RIA Novosti Sport and explicitly endorsed Turlov.
The 54-year-old effectinvely tried to anoint Turlov as his successor, saying: "I think the favourite is Timur Turlov, in a team with Viswanathan Anand. I hope he wins. His election would be a plus for FIDE and the entire chess world."
The question of whether Turlov represents continuity with Dvorkovich's days or not is likely to matter enormously when national federations vote in Samarkand next month.
Turlov has also addressed the war more directly during his presidential campaign.
In a recent interview setting out his plans for FIDE, he said he regretted the situation surrounding Russia but acknowledged that separating sport and politics had become "“extremely difficult".
Asked about the conditions necessary for relations to change, Turlov was unequivocal on one point.
"I think one of them is very important to stop this war," he said.
The Russia question hangs over the election in other ways.
The Russian Chess Federation is currently suspended by FIDE and will not vote in Samarkand, while Russian teams are set to miss the Chess Olympiad. Meanwhile, Dvorkovich's removal from the race has transformed what once looked like a relatively straightforward attempt to secure another term into a genuine three-way contest.
For Turlov, the challenge is increasingly clear.
He must persuade delegates that he can offer the benefits of continuity with the existing FIDE administration without inheriting the Russian political baggage that ultimately helped bring Dvorkovich's presidency to an end.
Giving up his Russian passport was one break with his country of birth.
Whether FIDE's federations regard it as a break with the old order in world chess is another question entirely.