In 1993, the staff of Zvezda plant and Alachinsky state farm, Kalmykia’s Cossacks council and congress of entrepreneurs of Kalmykia nominated Kirsan Ilyumzhinov as a candidate for President of the Republic of Kalmykia.During these years, Buddhist and Orthodox churches and the Chess City were built; in latter the international chess Olympiad was held in 1998. The largest in Europe Khurul – "The Golden Monastery of the Buddha Shakyamuni" was built, etc.
It would be not an exaggeration to say that Kalmykia became known to the world owing to the work of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The Republic was visited by world famous actors and musicians as well as the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II and His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who twice came to Kalmykia on a pastoral visit.
