FIDE Divided Over Podolyak and Kolobkov
By Douglas C. · Thu, 22 Oct 2026
A Month After Timur Turlov's Election, Meduza Describes a FIDE Leadership Divided Over Podolyak and Kolobkov and a Russian Case Dropped Without Explanation
A month after Timur Turlov won the FIDE presidency, the picture is messy. In a long feature published October 21, Meduza's Konstantin Skorkin lays out where things stand. Russian prosecutors have dropped their case against Turlov without a word of explanation, Ukrainian officials are split over a presidential aide taking a FIDE vice presidency, and critics say that appointment helps legitimize Russian influence in the federation.
The case that disappeared
Meduza reports, citing Kommersant, that Russia's Prosecutor General's Office moved in early October to have Turlov declared an extremist and his Russian assets confiscated. The stated basis was a 2 million euro transfer from Freedom Holding for humanitarian aid to Ukraine, intended for ambulances. A representative said Turlov no longer had assets in Russia. By mid-October the prosecutors had withdrawn the lawsuit and the court dismissed the case, again with no reason given.
Podolyak and Kolobkov
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to the head of Zelensky's office, became a FIDE vice president at Turlov's invitation. Meduza notes that the two men had no known earlier contact or business ties, and that Podolyak has no known chess background. He shares the role with a former Russian sports minister, whom Meduza's English translation calls Alexander Kolobov. Other outlets, including the Kyiv Independent and TASS, give his name as Pavel Kolobkov, and this article uses that spelling.
Podolyak says his goal is to reduce Russian influence in chess from the inside while leaving sports matters to the federation. He has criticized what he calls the Ukrainian Chess Federation's passive stance, saying its officials did nothing to remove Dvorkovich's team, and he has called Ukraine's sanctions on Turlov strange, pointing to Turlov's Kazakh citizenship, his departure from Russia and his humanitarian investment in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian backlash
The Ukrainian Chess Federation never backed Turlov. According to Meduza it nominated its own candidate, Oleksandr Kamyshin, who declined to run, citing wartime priorities, and it says it received no offer to nominate a representative to Turlov's team. Regional federations then sent an open letter to Zelensky accusing Podolyak of legitimizing Russians in FIDE's leadership. Volodymyr Kovalchuk argued that Turlov had simply swapped in for Dvorkovich and that nothing would change, calling it a castling maneuver. Critics say that pairing Podolyak with Kolobkov shows the opposite of what Podolyak claims.
Meduza does not mention the federation's call for an SBU treason investigation of Podolyak. The Kyiv Independent reported that call on September 28, when neither the SBU nor Podolyak had commented. The sources reviewed show no response since, so it is not established whether the request has been answered.
Turlov's own record
Meduza adds some background on Turlov himself. He took Kazakh citizenship in June 2022 and has been on Ukraine's sanctions list since October 2022, a five-year listing that runs to late 2027 and is not currently set to be lifted. A 2023 Hindenburg Research report accused his holding company of sanctions evasion, and Meduza says an independent review in January 2024 refuted the findings. Turlov has called the sanctions listing a clerical error.
