9/21/2018 – It was none other than Vladimir Putin, who dropped in at the training camp in Sochi. There he spoke to the men and women team members, about the importance of Russia regaining their dominating role in chess, about young talents and talent schools — like the one initiated by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. "Sirius" has already produced a number of children's champions. Watch this 1TV report — it is in Russian, but we provide a rough transcript for you to read.

7/27/2018 – Arkady Dvorkovich has been on tour for his electoral campaign and made stops at the Biel International Chess Festival and, a day after, at the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund (where he made the ceremonial first move for the game Kovalev-Kramnik). Macauley Peterson and Georgios Souleidis interviewed him on topics ranging from his plans for FIDE if elected, his connection to the Russian government, Agon, and political campaign wrangling. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

10/31/2014 – Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is reputed to have spent over 50 billion dollars on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, met with Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, President of FIDE, who is staging a World Championship there next week. Ilyumzhinov reported to Putin that things are going well, including the Internet coverage, which has to be able to handle hundreds of millions of visitors.