President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the first president of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation

The first president in human history to state publicly that extraterrestrials took him aboard a spacecraft and that he visited another planet.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (April 5, 1962–) is a wealthy Kalmyk businessman and politician. He was the first president of the Republic of Kalmykia in the Russian Federation (1993-2010), and he served as president of the World Chess Federation for 23 years (1995-2018).

Ilyumzhinov once said: “I am actually Chinese as well. Four hundred years ago, our people rode horses out of Inner Mongolia in China and migrated to Russia. My roots are in China.”

Ilyumzhinov is also an extraterrestrial contactee. He claims that in September 1997, extraterrestrials he met in his apartment took him to their spacecraft to travel and visit another planet. He claims that during this time three members of his staff searched his apartment, could not find him, and could not explain how he was back in his bedroom an hour later.

The photo above shows a 2006 meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin (left).

In a 2010 television interview, he said that one evening in September 1997 he saw a “translucent” spacecraft from the balcony. ETs in yellow spacesuits flew into his apartment to collect him. He remembers the moment completely. They carried him to their starship, and he began to feel short of air, short of oxygen. They also gave him a spacesuit. One of the extraterrestrials pointed to his chest and indicated that the oxygen supply could be adjusted by turning a dial.

The ship was absolutely enormous; one of its rooms was the size of a large soccer field. We landed on a planet, picked up some equipment, and they told me everything in detail. They wanted to prove that unidentified flying objects really do exist.

Someone asked me what language I had used to talk with them. It was probably telepathy. I asked them to take me back to Earth as soon as possible, because within two days I had to hold a “Youth Government Week” event. Then they brought me back, and everything returned to normal.

If not for three witnesses—my driver, my minister, and my assistant—I might not have believed it; at the time I was clearly in the apartment. A few days later I began to wonder: “Why did they take me?”

After this, what suddenly unsettled his Russian political colleagues was whether he had leaked state secrets, and whether there was a proper procedure for dealing with extraterrestrials.

Around the world, it is still a political disaster for a politician to discuss unidentified flying objects from a personal standpoint. After Ilyumzhinov spoke freely in a 2010 television interview about what he called his meeting with extraterrestrials aboard a spacecraft, Russian parliamentarian Andrei Lebedev (AndreLebedev) raised several concerns with President Dmitry Medvedev. Lebedev wanted to know whether Ilyumzhinov was “fit to govern.” He also worried that if Ilyumzhinov had been abducted, he might have revealed details of his work and of state secrets. Assuming the whole affair was more than a hoax, it was a historic event and should have been reported to the Kremlin.

Ilyumzhinov’s revelations, though somewhat controversial, did not bring disaster on him. He continued to serve as president and as president of the chess federation.

In 2015 he told a reporter from Sport-Express more of the details.

Reporter: Have you ever regretted telling the world about your 1997 meeting with extraterrestrials from outer space?

Ilyumzhinov: You know, before I decided to tell the media, I took two sheets of paper. On one sheet I wrote down every benefit of the true story I was telling—I stress, the true story. On the other sheet I wrote down all the drawbacks. In the end I had no benefits, and many drawbacks: ridicule, smear campaigns in the media, being called crazy, and so on. But do you know why I decided to reveal my contact with extraterrestrials? I dreamed of telling the world that humanity is not alone in the universe. I do not want to talk about the details of that interstellar journey. I want to say only one thing: there are many groups of extraterrestrials studying other planets. In any case, there is a great deal of evidence that we are not alone in the universe. What world champion Vasily Smyslov (VassilySmyslov) told me further confirms this.

Vasily Smyslov (VassilySmyslov), a Russian chess player and former world chess champion. The 17 Chess Olympiad medals he won are a historical record.

Reporter: Was he a contactee too?

Ilyumzhinov: Smyslov kept the secret for many years. In 2000, during a knockout tournament at the Kremlin, he shared it with me. He admitted that in his match against Hübner, “when night fell,” they came to him and showed him how to play the next day. They talked and discussed the plan. The next day the board unfolded exactly as they had discussed, and that helped him win. Smyslov looked at me and asked: “Ilyumzhinov, have you actually seen them?” I said yes. Then he and his wife exchanged a conspiratorial look…