De Void has been up and stumbling since 2007, but a couple of news blurbs over the past few weeks make me realize just how little I know about this Great Taboo thing. For instance, I’d never heard of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov until Lee Spiegel at Huffington Post did a spread on the guy, and I’m like, damn.
From 1993 to 2010, Ilyumzhinov was the millionaire president of something I’d never heard of before, population not even 300,000, otherwise known as the Republic of Kalmykia. In "Jeopardy!", you'd have to phrase it in the form of a question: “What is the only Buddhist nation in Europe?” More interesting trivia: Charging them with disloyalty during WWII, Stalin had the entire population deported to Siberia in 1943. And they weren’t allowed to return until Kruschev gave the green light in 1957. Not an easy row to hoe for the Kalmykians.
Back to the point: Kalmykia’s erstwhile head of state has also been the director of the World Chess Foundation (FIDE) since 1995. In 1997, four years into his presidency, Ilyumzhinov gets abducted from an apartment in Moscow by an “enormous” UFO. The occupants wear yellow space suits. Yellow. Fortunately, they beam him home in time to preside over Youth Government Week back in Kalmykia. At least, that’s his story. And he’s been talking about it with practically anyone who’ll listen.