Arkady Dvorkovich, the Grandmaster of Bribery

Arkady Dvorkovich, the ruling FIDE president, runs for another term, while Russia wages the war unanimously condemned by the global community. Why does he think that he can win the elections? Because he knows everything about corrupting politicians and sportsmen.
There is a real danger that Viswanathan Anand, who runs for the office as his vice-president, and other chess personalities supporting Dvorkovich are involved in his criminal schemes.

To understand how Dvorkovich corrupted those people, it will be useful to have a look at the correspondence archive partially published by The Insider project in 2019. This article reveals that Dvorkovich supervised the bribery scheme that procured FIFA World Cup 2018 for Russia

The leaked mails and attachments were sent in 2010 by Alexander Djordjadze, the deputy director of "Russia 2018" bidding committee to Sergey Kapkov (at that date the president of the National Football Academy sponsored by Roman Abramovich), Alexander Plutnik, the personal assistant of Igor Shuvalov (at that date the First Deputy Prime Minister) and Dvorkovich (at that date the Deputy Prime Minister).
These documents belong to a huge archive of Kapkov's  correspondence on a multitude of subjects, leaked in 2019, which makes any allegations about forgery of these mails in particular unbelievable.

Why Dvorkovich was in the list of destinations? Because he was connected to football as closely as to chess. For example, he was on the board of directors of the Russian Football Union from 2006 to 2009.

The first attachment is a dossier on 22 FIFA Executive Committee members with their personal characteristics and hints on how these each of them can be coerced into supporting the Russian bid. For example, it stated that the price for Marios Lefkaritis' vote was about 1-1.5 mln Euro and he could be also used to influence Michele Platini, with whom he shared business. 
Of course, to win a vote, you need to buy only 12 out of 22 voters, and a few FIFA executives were characterized as "impossible to bribe", but they were a minority. Unfortunately, whatever was in Dvorkovich's dossier for Anand in 2022, it worked. 

Whatever was in Dvorkovich's dossier for Anand, it worked.  

In a later document, "Russia 2018" committee executives Vyacheslav Koloskov and Alexei Sorokin reported to their accomplices, including Dvorkovich, that they met Fedor Radmann, the assistant of Franz Beckenbauer, and that "der Kaiser" (the Emperor), nicknamed for his control of the football field, agreed to receive 3 mln. Euro in advance before the voting  and another 1.5 mln. Euro if the bid were successful. 

For those who are not into football, the Russian bid won in round 2 by 13 votes out of 22 on December 2, 2010. The investigation, that started in 2014, eventually forced Blatter, Platini and other corrupt football officials into resignation, but it was not possible to change the host country. 

Platini and Beckenbauer were legends of football, but they took the bribes, and eventually had to leave any positions, becoming outcasts. Think about it.

Dvorkovich started reaping the fruits of the venture, while Russia was preparing for the Cup. Magomedov brothers, Dvorkovich's close friends (and possibly frontmen) and their Summa company were involved in the construction of the Kaliningrad Stadium. The value of damages and misappropriated assets (i.e. stolen from the budget) during that project alone was 750 mln rubles (about 15 mln USD) as according to the prosecutor's office.   

One might call Dvorkovich's appearance in the list of recipients a coincidence, or deny his partnership with Magomedov brothers, but in March 2018 he became involved in the World Cup project directly. Dvorkovich replaced Mutko as the Chairman of the Local Organizing Committee, when the latter became a total outcast for the global community after his role in the manipulation of anti-doping results at Sochi 2014 had been revealed.

In June 2018 Dvorkovich claimed his FIDE presidency ambitions. Did he use the World Cup to gain support of voters? By all means, yes! He invited many delegates of chess federations to Russia suggesting to pay for their flights and to arrange tickets to the FIFA World Cup

Did he try to explain it? Not really. That's what he said: "As a chairman of the organizing committee I had the right to invite partners, colleagues, anyone, from all around the world, to the World Cup. (...) When I give gifts to friends on the occasion of their birthday, yes, you can say this friend will help me with something. Probably yes. But it doesn’t mean I should not give gifts or flowers to my friends. It’s the same with those tickets."

This is a vicious circle: Dvorkovich corrupted FIFA officials to win the bid for the Football Cup,  used it to corrupt  FIDE officials  to win FIDE presidency, used it... Unfortunately,  this is just the beginning of the sad story of our chess kingdom.
Those who do not understand how Dvorkovich's presidency will act on every chess player need to read Wikipedia on Sportswashing and realize that FIDE will be a unique international sports federation run by a Putin's pawn.

Ask your national federation. Whom will they support? Silence means corruption.

If something positive can be said about the football crooks, back in 2010 Putin was not the Russian president, Crimea was Ukrainian and Russia did not wage war. Now there is no excuse for Anand, who plans to become his Vice-President, and other Dvorkovich's accomplices in chess federations all over the world. In 2022, the money offered by Dvorkovich to chess officials is not only dirty, but also soaked with blood of Ukrainians. 

What can you do to save chess?
If you are a a club player, federation member, you pay fees, you have the right to decide. Call to your national federation and ask questions, call to your representative  and ask questions. Whom will they support? Silence means corruption. For the moment, only South Sudan, Curaçao, the New Zealand, England, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Norway publicly support Andrii Baryshpolets, Dvorkovich's main opponent.

If you are a chess person, or maybe a voter, stop and think twice before supporting Dvorkovich. Does Dvorkovich's offer to you look attractive?  Are people in your country indifferent to the war in Ukraine? That does not matter. Platini and Beckenbauer were legends of football, but they took the bribes, and eventually had to leave any positions, becoming outcasts. Think about it. Think well.