page_title: Kalmykia
section_title: Politics
hierarchical_section_title: Kalmykia / Politics
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Площадь Ленина, Элиста, Калмыкия
context_page_description: The Republic of Kalmykia is a federal subject of Russia. As of the 2010 Census, its population was 289,481.
  Kalmykia is the only region in Europe where Buddhism is the most-practised religion, with Buddhists constituting the majority of the population.
  Elista, the capital of the republic, has gained an international reputation for international chess competitions.
context_section_description: The head of the government in Kalmykia is called "The Head of the Republic". The President of Russia selects a candidate for the Head of the Republic position and presents it to the Parliament of Kalmyk Republic, the People's Khural, for approval.  If a candidate is not approved, the President of the Russian Federation can dissolve the Parliament and set up new elections.
  From 1993 to  2010, the Head of the Republic was Kirsan Nikolayevich Ilyumzhinov. He is also the president of the world chess organization FIDE. He has spent much of his fortune on promoting chess in Kalmykia—where chess is compulsory in all primary schools—and also overseas, with Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, hosting many international tournaments.
  In the late 1990s, the Ilyumzhinov government was alleged to be spending too much government money on chess-related projects. The allegations were published in Sovietskaya Kalmykia, the opposition newspaper in Elista. Larisa Yudina, the journalist who investigated these accusations, was kidnapped and murdered in 1998. Two men, Sergei Vaskin and Tyurbi Boskomdzhiv, who worked in the local civil service, were charged with her murder, one of them having been a former presidential bodyguard. After prolonged investigations by the Russian authorities, both men were found guilty and jailed, but no evidence was discovered that Ilyumzhinov himself was in any way responsible.
  On October 24, 2010, Ilyumzhinov was replaced by Alexey Orlov as the new Head of Kalmykia. Since 2008, Anatoly Kozachko has been President of the Parliament, the People's Khural. The current Prime Minister of Kalmykia is Lyudmila Ivanovna. All the three top politicians belong to the Kremlin's "United Russia" Party.
caption: Parliament of Kalmykia in Lenina Square, Elista.
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