Asset-Seizure Against Turlov Withdrawn
By Douglas C. · Tue, 20 Oct 2026
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has dropped a lawsuit seeking to seize the Russian assets of new FIDE President Timur Turlov and companies linked to his Freedom Holding group.
Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has dropped a lawsuit seeking to seize the Russian assets of new FIDE President Timur Turlov and companies linked to his Freedom Holding group. The motion to withdraw, signed by Deputy Prosecutor General Igor Tkachev, reached Moscow's Tverskoy District Court on October 14, and a preliminary hearing was scheduled for October 15. According to RBC and Interfax reports, the court accepted it. Neither the prosecutors nor the court has said why.
What the lawsuit was
The case first became public on October 1 through Kommersant, which found it in the Moscow court database. The defendants were Turlov, Freedom Holding Corp., Freedom Finance Europe Ltd., another group company and, according to Kommersant, a business partner who manages his Russian assets. The suit was an administrative claim seeking to turn assets into state revenue. Interfax, citing law enforcement sources, put their value in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but the substance of the claim was never published.
The reported link to Ukraine donations
Kommersant, citing its own sources, reported that prosecutors might argue that the defendants financed Ukrainian structures opposing Russia's armed forces, and that the case could seek to have them declared extremist. As evidence of such funding, it pointed to Kazakh and Ukrainian media reports that Turlov gave about 1 billion tenge, over $2 million, to Ukraine's embassy in Kazakhstan for humanitarian purchases, and about 371.6 million tenge, over $720,000, to Kazakh charity funds that supported Ukraine. It also cited a reported 2 million euros from Freedom Holding for ambulances and other equipment, some of it reportedly through the UNITED24 platform. Kommersant did not verify those figures, and no Russian authority has confirmed that donations were the basis for the suit. Factum, citing TASS, reports that prosecutors had also sought to designate Freedom Holding an extremist organization before dropping that demand. That detail comes from a single secondary report.
What Freedom Holding says
Freedom Holding's press service said it was perplexed by the suit, did not yet know its substance and saw no significant risks to the group's operations. The company says it has no assets in Russia and does no business there. Its Russian business was sold to local management, with the sale completed in early 2023 for about $140 million, according to Moscow Times and Factum. Turlov gave up his Russian citizenship in 2022 and now holds Kazakh citizenship. No statement from Turlov himself on the withdrawal turned up in the sources reviewed.
A presidency that began under scrutiny
Turlov was elected FIDE president on September 26 in Samarkand, winning 110 votes to Wadim Rosenstein's 85 in the second round. Ukraine has sanctioned him personally since October 2022. After the election he named two vice-presidents, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president's office, and Pavel Kolobkov, Russia's former sports minister. On September 28 the Ukrainian Chess Federation said it had not authorized Podolyak to represent Ukraine, urged the SBU to investigate him, and argued that Kolobkov cannot hold the post while the Russian federation's FIDE membership is suspended. Podolyak has called the sanctions on Turlov strange and said he accepted the role to increase Ukrainian representation in international federations.
What we do not know
The reason for the withdrawal is unexplained, and nothing establishes whether the suit was tied to Turlov's election. Sources also differ on timing: Kursiv, citing RBC, says the case was registered on September 24, before the vote, while Factum says it was filed several days after it. Kommersant's account of the intended grounds rests on unnamed sources. The sources reviewed contain no comment from FIDE or the Prosecutor General's Office.
Sources
- Russian prosecutors drop lawsuit against Timur Turlov and Freedom Holding (Kursiv, citing RBC)
- Russia Backs Off Lawsuit Targeting Freedom Holding Founder Timur Turlov (Fergana, citing Interfax and Kommersant)
- Russian Prosecutors Drop Bid to Seize FIDE President’s Assets (Factum)
- Kommersant report on the suit and the donations
- Moscow Times Russian Service, October 1 (Reuters report on the suit)
- Moscow Times Russian Service, October 2 (Kommersant republished)
- Sanctioned Turlov elected new FIDE president (Interfax-Ukraine)
- Ukrainian Chess Federation blasts presidential aide over FIDE position (Kyiv Independent)
- Podoliak defends sanctioned FIDE president Turlov (prm.ua)
