The Kremlin immediately reacted to the news about Ilyumzhinov's nomination. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the Russian president, told Interfax that Russia would support Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who "did a great deal for the successful work of FIDE and the popularization of chess in the world."
According to Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the sanctions will not interfere with his work and the election campaign, which will be held under the slogan "Chess for Every Family". His programme will be "socially oriented": "The chess world is already unified, the tournament system is created. It seems to me that professional chess players have nothing to complain about, so it's time to take care of others, namely of amateur chess players."
The head of FIDE clarified that he still wants to make sure that the number of chess players of the world reaches one billion and large-scale projects such as "Chess in Schools" and "Chess in the Village" will be the parts of his programme. "My goal is to make sure that every family has at least a one chess set," he added.
Analysts believe that the Ilyumzhinov’s main rival, as in previous elections, may be Garry Kasparov. In recent years, Kasparov has been actively cooperating with the US Chess Federation.
At the moment, Garry Kasparov is serving a two-year ban imposed by the Ethics Commission of the Federation, who found Mr. Kasparov and the former Secretary-General Ignatius Leong guilty of breaching the FIDE Code of Ethics.
The ban of ex-world champion from official activities expires in September and Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said: "I would like to see Kasparov as my rival again. The situation when the world champion contests the first-class player is very interesting," he remarked. At the same time, if Garry Kasparov refuses to run for the post, Ilyumzhinov still "would have enjoyed working with him in the same team for the benefit of chess."