The 21st package of EU sanctions included Arkady Dvorkovich, Russia’s former Deputy Prime Minister and current President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). European officials justified their decision not on the basis of his personal business dealings, but rather on the combination of his state and public roles. In particular, Dvorkovich is accused of having, in his capacity as FIDE president, publicly supported the annexation of Crimea and referred to the occupied Ukrainian cities as ‘new territories’ of Russia, thereby undermining ‘the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine’.
In brief:
- Dvorkovich has suspended his involvement in FIDE’s work due to EU sanctions and intends to appeal against this decision
- He has also withdrawn his candidacy from the International Federation’s presidential election in September 2026
- Russia’s hopes of retaining control of the federation now rest with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. US sanctions against him were lifted in 2025
- Dvorkovich’s election as FIDE president in 2018 was marred by scandal: rivals alleged pressure and bribery of national federations
- His re-election in 2022, a few months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, raised questions
Dvorkovich himself immediately announced that he was suspending his involvement in FIDE’s work due to the sanctions and intended to appeal against this decision.
“I wish to state unequivocally that I consider this decision to be unlawful and unjust, and it will be appealed immediately by all possible means,” TASS quotes Dvorkovich as saying. “I am confident that justice will prevail. However, given that, until an official court ruling is issued and/or such a decision is overturned or amended, these sanctions may hinder the stable functioning of FIDE, I have decided to voluntarily suspend the exercise of my powers and duties as FIDE President.”
Vishwanathan Anand, the world chess champion from India, will act as interim president of FIDE.
The next election for the FIDE presidency will take place in Samarkand at the end of September. Arkady Dvorkovich has already announced that he will not stand for re-election due to the risks to the organisation, although as recently as June he had intended to do so.
It is noteworthy that the previous FIDE president – the Russian Kirsan Ilyumzhinov – also stepped down from his post in 2015 due to sanctions, though these were American rather than European. He was accused of providing financial and material support to the Syrian government. The first Russian president of FIDE generally enjoyed travelling to meet dictators, and in addition to Bashar al-Assad, he maintained contact with Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi. Ilyumzhinov has now been removed from the US sanctions list and once again intends to stand for the presidency of FIDE.
Not even Arkady Dvorkovich’s initially anti-war stance – which cost him his positions in state-owned corporations – saved him from EU sanctions.
From expert to deputy prime minister
Arkady Dvorkovich’s political career has been entirely linked to the economic wing of the Russian government. Upon joining the Ministry of Finance in 1994, he was part of an expert group dealing with budgetary policy and relations with international financial organisations. He then joined Herman Gref’s team and, together with him, moved to the Ministry of Economic Development, where he eventually took up the post of deputy minister. During Vladimir Putin’s first terms in office, Dvorkovich was responsible for providing economic expertise on presidential decisions, and when Dmitry Medvedev entered the Kremlin, he was appointed his assistant on economic matters.
When it became known that Vladimir Putin was planning to return to the presidency, Dvorkovich wrote on his microblog: “Well, there’s certainly no cause for celebration.” He has never publicly explained the reason behind this post. Following the presidential-prime ministerial reshuffle, Dvorkovich remained in Medvedev’s team, becoming deputy prime minister in his government — overseeing the fuel and energy sector, agriculture, the real economy and even preparations for the 2018 FIFA World Cup. He did not join Mikhail Mishustin’s government during Putin’s fourth presidential term.
The former deputy prime minister moved to work at the Skolkovo Foundation and soon became its chairman. This phase of his career ended in 2022. Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Dvorkovich stated in an interview with Mother Jones magazine that war was “the worst thing one can face” and expressed sympathy for the civilian population of Ukraine. These remarks drew sharp criticism in Russia, with the official being labelled a “national traitor” and calls being made for his dismissal. Under pressure, Dvorkovich left Skolkovo but retained his position as FIDE President, a post to which he was elected in 2018 and re-elected in 2022.
Family fortune
Arkady Dvorkovich’s career rise in the 2000s is linked to his marriage to Zumrud Rustamova, the daughter of Dagestan businessman Khandadash Rustamov. At the time, she was serving as Deputy Minister for Property Relations, but soon moved entirely into the business world, primarily linked to the interests of the oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.
Rustamova sat on the boards of directors of a number of major companies: the Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, Sheremetyevo Airport, Khanty-Mansi Bank, the PIK construction group, Polyus Gold and Polymetall.
For many years, Dvorkovich’s wife was among the wealthiest wives of federal officials, officially declaring an income of between 50 and 150 million roubles a year. Meanwhile, the Deputy Prime Minister’s own earnings were significantly more modest. Since leaving public service in 2018, details of his income and assets are no longer published. According to estimates by the Octagon project, based on an analysis of the Dvorkovich family’s assets, the family’s total income is estimated to run into billions of roubles.
It is not known for certain where Arkady Dvorkovich currently resides. Over the years, there have been reports of his possible move to the US or Switzerland, where FIDE’s headquarters are located. According to the latest information, he may have settled in Latvia, where his son lives. Dvorkovich himself has repeatedly stated that he has no intention of leaving Russia, although he frequently travels abroad on business.
The Chess President
Arkady Dvorkovich is not a professional chess player, grandmaster or coach. However, his father, Vladimir Dvorkovich, was in his day a renowned international chess arbiter, a grandmaster amongst arbiters, and served as executive secretary of the USSR Chess Federation in the 1980s. His son also joined the Chess Federation – now of Russia – where he was involved in organising tournaments, securing sponsors and developing chess for children.
In 2018, Arkady Dvorkovich set his sights on the presidency of the International Chess Federation and secured the post. However, his rivals claim that this was not without pressure and bribery from Russia. In a investigation by the Financial Times, Georgios Makropoulos, the Russian’s rival for the FIDE presidency, revealed that of the 189 chess federations that are members of FIDE ‘more than 120 federations were subjected to pressure, sometimes direct, from Russian embassies or via their countries’ ministries of sport and foreign affairs’, whilst dozens of federations were offered gifts and financial incentives.
Dvorkovich himself denied any involvement by the Russian authorities in the FIDE presidential election.
“Politics had nothing to do with it. That doesn’t mean that my colleagues in government and at embassies didn’t spread the word (about my candidacy) around the world. They did, and that’s something you’re allowed to do during an election,” he said.
Dvorkovich’s re-election as FIDE president in 2022, a few months after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, seemed even more peculiar. Many had expected that the Russian candidate would be unable to retain his post. The Russian’s main rival was the Ukrainian grandmaster Andriy Baryshpolets. However, he received only 16 votes, whilst 157 members of the International Chess Federation voted for Dvorkovich.
Shortly afterwards, the Ukrainian Chess Federation announced that a criminal case had been opened against Arkady Dvorkovich and three other Russian chess players – Anatoly Karpov, Sergey Karjakin and Sergey Shipov. They were accused of inciting war and infringing upon Ukraine’s territorial integrity.
Dvorkovich’s election as FIDE president did not spare Russian chess players from international sanctions. As early as March 2022, the national teams of Russia and Belarus were suspended from all official team competitions, the national symbols of these countries were banned, and individual chess players were only permitted to continue playing under neutral status. The federation also banned the holding of any tournaments under its auspices in Russia and Belarus. The 2022 World Chess Olympiad was moved from Moscow to Chennai, India.
At the end of 2025, FIDE began to ease the restrictions. All restrictions on players from Belarus were lifted, whilst Russian chess players are still required to compete under neutral status in senior tournaments.
Following Arkady Dvorkovich’s inclusion on the EU sanctions list, he suspended his duties as president of the International Chess Federation. In effect, this was a necessary decision: had he retained his powers, it could have paralysed the organisation’s operations. As FIDE is registered in Switzerland, a person subject to European Union sanctions cannot act as the owner, holder or person exercising control over its assets.
There are less than ten weeks to go before the FIDE presidential election. Arkady Dvorkovich is unlikely to have time to secure the lifting of the European sanctions within this timeframe, which is why he has withdrawn from the election. Russia’s hopes of retaining control of the presidency now rest with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. His rivals will be the German entrepreneurs Vadim Rosenshtein and Jan Henrik Büttner, who are well known in the chess community, as well as the president of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, Timur Turlov, whom Dvorkovich had until recently been considering as his candidate for the post of FIDE vice-president.
Author: Olga Semashko
Official Russian and Belarusian sources cited in this text are for informational purposes only. Content from these sources may constitute disinformation or propaganda.
