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The closing was extended to the last day of April.
Nigel Short's tweet this morning:
"Today is a joyous day for anyone who owes money to #FIDE. You can't send them funds because they don't have a bank account. The Presidential Board - Kirsan, Makro and Co. - should resign en masse."
"According to FIDE officials, UBS Bank in Switzerland is closing the account of the World Chess Federation today. FIDE still hasn't found a new bank.
Today, UBS Bank's deadline for FIDE to find a new financial partner expires. As was announced in February, the Swiss bank will now be closing the account, says FIDE Treasurer Adrian Siegel.
A closing of the account would mean all operations between FIDE and UBS will be terminated. Payment orders will no longer be executed and incoming payments will be returned to the sender. Debit and credit cards will be blocked.
According to FIDE officials, UBS is terminating its relations with FIDE because of its president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's presence on the sanctions list of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
On April 26, Ilyumzhinov sent a letter to FIDE's executive director Nigel Freeman, in which he gave the contact details of two banks which, he suggested, might work with FIDE: CIM Bank in Geneva and Bank of America in New Jersey.
The next day Freeman replied in a letter, stating that FIDE already had unsuccessful talks with CIM Bank because this bank also has a problem with Ilyumzhinov as the head of FIDE. He lists 18 banks that "refused to even meet with us," mentions banks in Georgia and Romania who refused to open accounts and finishes his letter saying: "I do not think you can be serious suggesting a U.S. bank, whilst you, as President of FIDE, are still on the U.S. Treasury sanctions list.""
Kirsan has his own website these days. As far as I can tell, he's still planning to run for the FIDE Presidency in October.
I see that no one on this thread has expressed even the mildest objection to the US practice of trying to enforce their domestic law in other countries around the world. In this case it is Switzerland, but it is also Cuba, Canada and many other countries in other examples. [Just ask the "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery, who was basically forced to serve a prison sentence in the US for actions taken in Canada.] It's the bullying hubris of an empire, of course, and under the current administration there seems to be no let up on such practices.
One amusing aspect to all this, however, is that the Russian Chess Federation is playing their cards close to their chest and, despite Kirsan's noisy display of affection for the Russian Federation and its President, they aren't showing any support for the beleaguered FIDE President. It's amusing because it's quite clear that Kirsan's Russian passport is the reason that he's been targeted by the spurious allegations of being connected to terrorists by way of promoting chess in Syria, etc., etc., and yet ... the Russian Chess Federation seems to be willing to cast him adrift.
He's so badly outnumbered at this point that a crushing win would be very, very amusing.
October should be interesting. lol.
Last edited by Nigel Hanrahan; Saturday, 5th May, 2018, 09:04 PM.
Reason: yup
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
I see that no one on this thread has expressed even the mildest objection to the US practice of trying to enforce their domestic law in other countries around the world.
And then there is the Nigel Hanrahan practice of trying to enforce strict moderation (i.e. "Hanrahan's Law") on ChessTalk.....
Only the rushing is heard...
Onward flies the bird.
Kirsan has his own website these days. As far as I can tell, he's still planning to run for the FIDE Presidency in October.
I see that no one on this thread has expressed even the mildest objection to the US practice of trying to enforce their domestic law in other countries around the world. In this case it is Switzerland, but it is also Cuba, Canada and many other countries in other examples. [Just ask the "Prince of Pot" Marc Emery, who was basically forced to serve a prison sentence in the US for actions taken in Canada.] It's the bullying hubris of an empire, of course, and under the current administration there seems to be no let up on such practices.
One amusing aspect to all this, however, is that the Russian Chess Federation is playing their cards close to their chest and, despite Kirsan's noisy display of affection for the Russian Federation and its President, they aren't showing any support for the beleaguered FIDE President. It's amusing because it's quite clear that Kirsan's Russian passport is the reason that he's been targeted by the spurious allegations of being connected to terrorists by way of promoting chess in Syria, etc., etc., and yet ... the Russian Chess Federation seems to be willing to cast him adrift.
He's so badly outnumbered at this point that a crushing win would be very, very amusing.
October should be interesting. lol.
It might be amusing in an End of FIDE way. As far as I can see at the moment there is only support in Africa for Kirsan. A Kirsan win at the moment means a FIDE which can't meet its financial obligations and can't even collect fees. I am not even sure how they are going to keep things going until October though given the lack of panic so far it appears there is something in place. Any bank which does business with a Kirsan led FIDE is cut off from the American financial system and dollar based transactions.
Russia is supporting Kirsan through its embassies. We were contacted though there hasn't been any followup.
It might be amusing in an End of FIDE way. As far as I can see at the moment there is only support in Africa for Kirsan. A Kirsan win at the moment means a FIDE which can't meet its financial obligations and can't even collect fees. I am not even sure how they are going to keep things going until October though given the lack of panic so far it appears there is something in place. Any bank which does business with a Kirsan led FIDE is cut off from the American financial system and dollar based transactions.
Russia is supporting Kirsan through its embassies. We were contacted though there hasn't been any followup.
Hi Vlad,
I must confess that I do not follow this stuff. Trump is more fun but FIDE is a close second :)
I took some time today to visit various sites. Our good friend GM Kevin Spraggett seems to think Kirsan will win the election hands down:
It might be amusing in an End of FIDE way. As far as I can see at the moment there is only support in Africa for Kirsan. A Kirsan win at the moment means a FIDE which can't meet its financial obligations and can't even collect fees. I am not even sure how they are going to keep things going until October though given the lack of panic so far it appears there is something in place. Any bank which does business with a Kirsan led FIDE is cut off from the American financial system and dollar based transactions.
Russia is supporting Kirsan through its embassies. We were contacted though there hasn't been any followup.
Technically it is actually quite easy for FIDE to deal with no bank account. They could simply buy bitcoin and transact in that currency and send money back and forth with digital wallets that have public keys (an address where to send bitcoins) and private keys (the equivalent of a password to get into the wallet). It would be a nuisance for chess federations around the world to have to open up a digital wallet, open an account and buy bitcoins on an exchange, transfer from the exchange to their digital wallet and then send bitcoins to FIDE'S public key address. Furthermore the terrible volatility of the currency makes it too risky for organizations like FIDE to hold bitcoins for extended periods of time.
The other problem of course is that the banks is only the first step in enforcing sanctions. At some point if chess federations or anyone else that does business with FIDE could feel the same wrath that banks do with consequences such as being banned from entry to the US denied access to US financial institutions as well as US counterparties.
Last October the Magnitsky act equivalent was passed in Canada and many Putin cronies were immediately put on the Canadian sanctions list. I think it is only a matter of time before Kirsan joins this list that would likely make it completely untenable for the CFC to have anything to do with FIDE while it is led by Kirsan.
To the surprise of no one this scenario was totally dismissed by the FIDE Rep and president of the CFC in 2014 and in fact met with ridicule. The consequences of this attitude of the CFC that ultimately led to not only voting for Kirsan but actually endorsing him were terrible. This included reputational damage to the CFC, a potential Canadian world champion effectively being denied the right to participate in a crucial tournament under the same conditions as others and quitting chess in disgust, loss of sponsorship, loss of the support of Sinquefeld both in Canada and abroad, Sinquefeld was the only person that could have kept FIDE in good shape. There were many other negative consequences to numerous to mention including FIDE now on the brink of extinction. In 2014 Kirsan needed legitamacy by getting a credible first world country in the America's to endorse him and the CFC handed him that important endorsement. Ironically the CFC got paid only a fraction of what they were promised for this endorsement.
I am not sure if Kirsan's long time sidekick is a viable alternative that will solve the problem as even a close associate of Kirsan's may be too close for comfort with many financial institutions. Unless someone comes from the outside in my opinion it is over for FIDE. I have thought for some time now that this is the time for federations around the globe to reorganize and start something anew.
Last edited by Sid Belzberg; Sunday, 6th May, 2018, 11:43 PM.
It might be amusing in an End of FIDE way. As far as I can see at the moment there is only support in Africa for Kirsan. A Kirsan win at the moment means a FIDE which can't meet its financial obligations and can't even collect fees. I am not even sure how they are going to keep things going until October though given the lack of panic so far it appears there is something in place. Any bank which does business with a Kirsan led FIDE is cut off from the American financial system and dollar based transactions.
Russia is supporting Kirsan through its embassies. We were contacted though there hasn't been any followup.
Good points. I would just add that IMHO we are in a transitional era in the dominant global currency.
The US has, hitherto, been able to enforce the role of the US dollar as the de facto reserve currency in the world. This is changing. The Iraqi leader, Saadam Hussein, and the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, both in their own ways, set about establishing currencies independent of the US dollar. Gaddafi aimed at a pan-African sort of currency and Hussein looked at an Iraqi bourse on the way to independence as well. As a result, their countries were invaded, the leaders savagely executed, and their economies destroyed by the US and their client regimes.
What is different is that the countries looking at establishing trade independent of the US dollar cannot be slaughtered so easily. I mean primarily China, Russia, Iran, and others. China has already begun the process of trading futures independently of the US dollar; Russia, China and some other countries are conducting trade in their own domestic currencies, etc., etc.. I don't want to exaggerate the trend but the direction vector is pretty clear.
-
I actually think that some of the apoplectic Russia-phobia and Sino-phobia emanating from western governments and media derives from a grudging recognition of this trend. Of course war and military production is very profitable so one mustn't exclude that nor other factors.
Anyway, Vlad's observations make sense here. In the same way that Iran supports Syria, because they are the next western target for regime change after Syria, so too the Russians may not care much for Kirsan but they know that his is simply a smaller, preliminary target leading up to the targeting of their own country. Think of it as practice.
The whole process of trying to force FIDE to jettison its elected leader through domestic US sanctions may just accelerate the process I've described above. It is worth mentioning that no country, whatever sycophantic pro-US things they are forced to say publicly, likes to have orders barked at them by the self-appointed global gendarme. So the anti-FIDE Front, led by the US, may be more tenuous than appearances may suggest.
As a sidebar, once the chickens come home to roost, and global trade moves more decisively away from the US dollar (just as it moved from the UK Pound before that and other currencies before that) , the monstrous US debt will acquire a stupendous effect. The US will not be able to blow vast sums, at the expense of other countries, on arms and wars to impose their wishes, states that relied on massive aid (of whatever kind) will be cast adrift, and the whole house of cards will crash.
Of course, in the long run, we're all dead anyway. lol.
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
It seems counterintuitive based on the communications that I am receiving. Perhaps Kevin has better information than I do but I will be surprised if he is right.
If Kirsan could satisfactorily address the U.S. treasury department and resulting banking situation which hasn't happened in some two years then Makro wouldn't be running. I don't think the CFC is interested in becoming a speculator in bitcoin as a workaround.
Of course, in the long run, we're all dead anyway. lol.
There is that. Whether the actions of the U.S. towards Kirsan are fair or not, we don't have enough information to evaluate which is just cause for suspicion given the current political situation but that is not our problem here. Absent an alternative, we would like FIDE to survive and thrive.
The Economist notes the hastening of the relative decline of the US
Supplemental to previous remarks:
The Economist has a piece from May 5 behind their paywall but a relevant quote is here.
1. "Everything changed after September 11th 2001. American officials realised they could use data and financial flows as a weapon, according to Juan Zarate, a former official, in his memoir “Treasury’s War”. The Patriot Act in 2001 allowed the Treasury to label foreign banks as threats to financial integrity and to ban them from the system for clearing dollar payments."
9-11 has allowed the US regime to weaponize data and financial flows. Kirsan is only one of many victims here.
2. "In 2001-03 America won the right to peer into SWIFT, a formerly confidential global bank messaging system. Suddenly America could track its enemies. And it could make them radioactive to most counterparties, because any bank that touched them, even indirectly and with multiple degrees of separation, could be banned from clearing in dollars—which, if you run a cross-border bank, is fatal.
Between 2002 and 2008 the Treasury experimented with small fry. It brought to heel Victor Bout, an arms dealer; BDA, a bank in Macau that traded with North Korea; and Nauru, a Pacific island with a sideline in exotic finance. Since 2008 Western banks have been fined for breaking rules in the past, but not banned from dollar clearing. More recently Iran and Syria have faced new sanctions but they have few links with the global economy.
Last month, the stakes were raised. At the end of 2017 Rusal was one of the world’s largest aluminium producers, with an enterprise value of $18bn, controlled by Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin. Kapow! In April it was sanctioned as part of a package of measures against Russia. Rusal’s links to America are slight. It makes 14% of its sales there, does not typically use American banks and is listed in Hong Kong and Moscow (a related company, EN+, is listed in London).
The consequences have still been devastating."
It could well be argued that these are simply acts of war by the US government.
3. The Economist waters it down, but suggests, in a wimpy way, that such weapons "could be used" for political ends. lol. Of course, they already have.
4. This is critical and is along the lines of what I've argued up-thread.
Originally posted by The Economist
The third conclusion is that other countries will develop ways to escape America’s reach. ZTE and Rusal offer a step-by-step guide to what you need to survive without American permission: semiconductors, a global currency and clearing system, credit-ratings agencies, commodity exchanges, a pool of domestic investors and shipping firms. These are all things that China is working on. America’s use of its new weapons simultaneously demonstrates its power and will hasten its relative decline.
China’s launch on Monday of its crude futures exchange will improve the clout of the yuan in financial markets and could threaten the international primacy of the dollar, argues a new report by Hayden Briscoe, APAC head of fixed income at UBS Asset Management.
“This is the single biggest change in capital markets, maybe of all time,” Briscoe said in a follow-up telephone interview.
Supplemental: As a result of US President Trump's "decision" to withdraw from the "Iran nuclear deal", the European Union is planning to switch payments to the euro for its oil purchases from Iran, eliminating US dollar transactions altogether.
For the time being, then, the US regime seems to be able to get away with what can be called a kind of international brigandage. The Treasury Department mandate flows from anti-terrorism laws - laws which have to do with vaguely defined "National Security" fictions - which lifts the covers just enough to expose the fairy tale around one Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.
But once China, with the support of her allies, is able to set up the infrastructure noted above, then all the US financial thuggery will be put in doubt. And the current US President has just pushed one more country - Iran - into the arms of China's embrace with his recent jettison of an important international agreement ... seemingly to spite the remaining legacy of his predecessor Barak Obama.
It really seems like the US is accelerating towards a precipice like Wiley Coyote chasing the Road Runner. And we all know how that ends up.
Meep! Meep!
Last edited by Nigel Hanrahan; Wednesday, 16th May, 2018, 01:53 PM.
Reason: my usual blunders, eh? ;) - plus supplemental
Dogs will bark, but the caravan of chess moves on.
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