Russian politician shares state secrets with 'Space Aliens'

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Were Russian secrets shared with ‘space alien’ visitors?

By Tony Halpin

Times Online

May 07, 2010

Russia has never been immune to spies and informers, but the latest claim must have struck President Medvedev as a little bizarre: he has been urged to investigate whether a regional politician passed official secrets to a group of aliens.

The request came after Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the millionaire President of Kalmykia, claimed on state television that he had been visited by aliens at his Moscow apartment several years ago and had spent hours in discussions with them on board their spaceship.

The head of the republic said that the humanoid figures wore yellow spacesuits and gave him a tour of their craft, which he described as a “semi-transparent half-tubeâ€. They had brought him home in the morning, just as his worried driver and two advisers were about to call a citywide search after finding his apartment empty.

“I am often asked which language I used to talk to them. Perhaps it was on a level of the exchange of ideas,†Mr Ilyumzhinov, who is also president of the international chess federation FIDE, told the Vladimir Pozner programme on Russia’s main First Channel.

This is not the first time that he has spoken of the alien encounter but yesterday his claims prompted Andrei Lebedev, an MP from the nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, to ask Mr Medvedev to order an official inquiry into the alleged alien agents to establish whether Mr Ilyumzhinov disclosed secret information.

In a letter to the Kremlin, he wrote: “I ask you to say if the head of Kalmykia has made an official report to the Russian presidency about his contacts with representatives of an alien civilisation.

“Is there an established procedure of informing about such contacts by high-ranking people who have access to secret information like Ilyumzhinov? And did he in the course of his seemingly innocent conversation disclose secret information?â€

Mr Ilyumzhinov told his interviewer that his encounter had taken place in 1997 when the aliens appeared on his balcony. “I was reading my book, watching television and had almost fallen asleep. Then I felt that someone was calling. I would not have believed it, if I had not had three witnesses.â€

Mr Lebedev, a member of the parliament’s security committee, said that he had been astonished by the claims. “I am not at all disconcerted by the fact that Ilyumzhinov might have actually been in contact with ‘green creatures’. That is his personal business.

“However, what myself and our opposition party as a whole do care about is who is occupying the office of the regional governor.â€

Mr Ilyumzhinov, who has led the Buddhist republic in southern Russia since 1993, dismissed the fuss, saying: “Pozner asked. I replied. If someone, including the respected Duma Deputy Andrei Lebedev, has any more questions, I am ready to meet and discuss any topic.â€

In 2006 he also claimed that he had flown with them to “some kind of starâ€, adding: “They put a spacesuit on me, told me many things and showed me around.â€

The controversy now may centre on the more down-to-earth matter of the bitter struggle for the presidency of FIDE. Mr Ilyumzhinov, 48, who has led the chess federation since 1995, is facing a challenge from the former world champion Anatoly Karpov in elections in September.

Mr Karpov had expected the Russian Chess Federation to back his candidature at a meeting next week. But Mr Medvedev’s chief economic aide, Arkady Dvorkovich, who heads the federation’s board, said last month that it would support Mr Ilyumzhinov.