President on plane

Eric Campbell: Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is  a very rich in a very poor country.

01.00.00.00

Just 35 years old, he's a multi-millionaire, with his own private jet, and an entourage of expert advisers. He's been a self-made millionaire since his late 20s. But these days, many of his trappings of wealth and power are paid for by people's taxes.

Getting off plane

Because for the past five years, the man who has everything, has also had his very own republic. Ilyumzhinov is president of the Russian republic of Kalmykia. It's a remote, administrative region on Russia's southern steppes... so remote the visit of Australian television crew is big news.

00.31

Visiting monument

Like all presidents of former Soviet republics, Ilyumzhinov is desperate to get his economy back on track. But unlike the others, he has an unusual way go going about it. Ilyumzhinov has chosen to make a chess-led recovery. Chess was his first love... and he's spending millions to turn Kalmykia into its world capital.

01.09

Ilyumzhinov hasn't restricted his skills to playing provincial politics. He's not only the rich leader of Kalmykia, but also the most powerful man in world.

In 1995 he was elected president of the world Chess Federation. In 1996 he made sure the world championship was held in Kalmykia. Now he's planning an even bigger extravaganza for 1998.

01.46

View of buildings in the process of being built.

Sidney may be gearing up for the 2000 Olympics, but Kalmykia is getting ready for the Chess Olympics. This sprawling complex to be called Chess City is being built purely to house the so called World Chess Olympiad to be held here in September. For one month it will host competitors and spectators and officials, then it will be sold off as luxury apartments to those few Kalmyks lucky enough to afford them.

02.05

Ilyumzhinov delights in showing off his burgeoning city... today his guests are representatives of Boris Yeltsin's administration in Moscow.

02.34

It is clear the bureaucrats are mightily impressed.. so much so no-one even questions why a dirt-poor republic would spend its limited money on such a project. Ilyumzhinov insists the Olympiad will put Kalmykia on the map.

Ilyumzhinov: Our republic was very small, unknown even in the Russian federation, let alone in the world.  And when we promote our republic through chess, after the journalists the business people come, the tourists, who are interested in the republic, they invest money.

03.00

Teenagers learning how to play chess.

Not content with hosting the Olympiad, Ilyumzhinov wants to make sure the future champions are Kalmyks. He's made chess a compulsory subject at school.

03.22

Ilyumzhinov: I think that chess helps society, it helps the leadership, and the first decree I signed when I was elected president in 1993 was about the development of chess in the Kalmyk republic.  We teach chess in Kindergartens, schools, universities, son that all the kids, the whole population play chess.

03.50

view of the city.

If Ilyumzhinov is an unusual ruler, Kalmykia is perhaps Russia's most unusual republic...an island of Asia inside Europe.  Its people are descendants of a Mongol tribe who migrated from the edge of China four centuries ago. For most of that time, they've lived under Russian rule and it's a long time since they've experienced real freedom.

04.26

In 1943 Stalin deported the entire population to Siberia on suspicion of disloyalty... half of them perished before returning in the late 50s. Even then, Kalmyk culture was suppressed.

04.50

Shaking hands

But where others might see a poor and battered community, Ilyumzhinov sees huge potential... not least for himself. He learned to think BIG during Russia's chaotic transition to capitalism.

05.07

As a young employee of the Japanese trading firm, he made several fortunes wheeling and dealing in commodities and consumer goods.  Now he's turned kalmykia into his personal fiefdom, and he's busily cashing in. His vision is to harness its natural resources and turn it into a tiger economy.

05.19

Ilyumzhinov

Ilyumzhinov: We have about 10 billion tons of oil. If you divide 10 billion tons by 350,000 people ,it is more than in Kuwait or Saudi Arabia. We have huge reserves of natural gas and caviar. Half of the caviar exported from the Soviet Union was produced in Kalmykia.

05.41

But not everyone is convinced Ilyumzhinov's plans are for Kalmykia's good... nor are they impressed with the president's methods.

06.10

View of newspaper  office.

Larissa Yudina edits Kalmykia's only independent newspaper.  It also happens to be the only medium critical of the President.  Larissa believes she and her staff have paid a heavy price for their criticism. Their newspaper can't be printed inside Kalmykia and they've been constantly evicted from their premises.  This is the seventh office they've moved to in the past year.

06.19

Talking from the office

Larissa: Our rooms were occupied, the doors were broken and new locks installed.  One day they started to break into our computer room, and I called the police.  The police came and did nothing, so our doors were broken under police supervision.

06.43

Speaking in front of the camera

Ilyumzhinov:  The task of the authorities and the mass media is to improve society, so that society is more educated and more stable, we have a common task, and therefore we work to achieve this task.  Those who want to work together, we help them.  But some work to destabilize society and we don't understand them.

07.06

Ilyumzhinov's power over people like Larissa is absolute.  He's technically subject to Federal authority. But in practice President Yeltsin gives him free rein.

07.34

Showing the newspapers, and talking to the camera

Larissa: What did he do for Yeltsin? He gave 70 per cent of votes to Yeltsin during the elections, and although the whole republic knows that it was rigged and illegal, he got the votes.  When I come to Moscow and I talk to the President's director of Territories, he says, "What can we do, he gave such a good percentage to Yeltsin?"

07.45

Horses

But the timeless rhythms of the land are a long way from the labyrinthine world of Russian politics.  For hundreds of years the Kalmyks have herded their horses across the steppe, scratching a living from its bare earth... Without question, it's a unique place.  Europe's only desert, and home to Europe's only indigenous camel.  

08.20

View of camels and horses.

In bizarre legacy of Soviet Communism, the camels, and the horses, are now raised on collective farms.  But the biggest industry by far, is sheep.  Unfortunately the international wool market collapsed at the same time as the soviet economy imploded.  And Kalmykia has been an economic basket case ever since.

08.47

Sheep walking.

President Ilyumzhinov's officials took us to what they described as a typical collective farm.  Even at this model collective, sheep numbers have plummeted to just a third of their soviet-era levels.

09.15

Valery Adudow

Valery Adudow works and sleeps here, rarely even seeing his wife  Nadia.  He can only join his family once a week in a nearby town.  Despite the obvious hardship, Valery insisted the President was making life much easier.

09.30

Valery: He is always travelling, getting something for Kalmykia.

Nadia: Of course, we don't see any of this, we don't get salaries. We just get by on our own work.

Eric: When was the last time you were paid?

Valery: Salary? When was it? We don't remember.

It's a common complaint across Russia. But Larissa Yudina believes it's been made worse by Ilyumzhinov. The paper has accused him of pilfering Kalmykia's wealth, rather than expanding it.

10.17

Walking in the room, going through papers.

Larissa: You can talk about Ilyumzhinov's honesty in business, because the money sent to the republic from Moscow was redirected to his corporation in St Petersburg, to its subsidiary in Nizhmi Tagil, he used the state money right after he was elected.  The money was meant to pay for the wool that Kalmykia produced in 1992, and the republic could not sell that wool for the next two years.  If Kalmykia had got the money for the wool in time, our sheep and wool industry wouldn't face such a crisis now. 

President in his office.

Ilyumzhinov denies stealing any money, claiming he doesn't even draw a salary.

11.12

Ilyumzhinov: My attitude to wealth - I never counted the money when I as in business or now.  You can eat one bowl of soup, or two, but why would you need ten bowls of soups, you won't eat them, you can't wear ten suits at the same time.

11.19

Visiting a temple.

Ilyumzhinov believes Kalmykia's economic recovery is dependent on a spiritual revival.  He's done his best to restore the republic's traditional religion.

11.44

Huge new temple.

Buddhism was brutally suppressed by the Soviets. Under Ilyumzhinov, temples are being built and the republic is resuming its proud mantle of Europe's only Buddhist State.  The huge, new temple outside the capital, Elista, is another proud achievement Ilyumzhinov shows off to visitors.  Again, the Moscow bureaucrats are clearly impressed.  What the may not be aware of, is that Ilyumzhinov's idea of a spiritual revival extends far beyond religion.  His policy-making verges on New Age.

12.01

His next big project after Chess City, is to build a giant pyramid in Elista.  He doesn't just employ economists...he also employs astrologers and fortune tellers.

12.42

Talking to the journalist in his office

Ilyumzhinov: That is why knowing that I'll live a second and a third life, I consult in all my actions with god, the stars.  I frequently make astrological maps, forecasts, I consult God, I consult the elderly people, the babushkas, the Buddhist lamas, the Christian priests.  And sometimes I feel that I do something wrong and God is not pleased. This is when people come to me to say I've done something wrong.

12.55

Shaking hands with

Saddam Hussein.

Whatever else Ilyumzhinov has been accused of, no-one has questioned his energy. He has travelled the world building up the republic's profile... extolling its potential as far afield as Iraq.  Even his critics concede he's helped Kalmyk culture revive from the ashes of Communism.

13.38

Larissa speaking from her office.

Larissa: Our life has become noticeably merrier.  We have lots of festivals, contests, dances, visiting celebrities.  So, on the surface life is merrier.  But in reality life has got worse.

14.08

Kalmyk dancing.

Life may or may not become easier under Ilyumzhinov, but its certainly becoming a lot more interesting.  But it's become a lot more interesting.

ENDS

14.59