Former head of Kalmykia Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: UFOs almost flew squadrons over Elista 
told about UFOs that flew over Elista “almost in squadrons” during his leadership of the republic. He wrote about this in a column for the Russian Pioneer magazine.
“We are so used to them [to UFOs] that we stopped paying attention. And for other reports of incomprehensible events, a special section was introduced in the leading newspaper. This section has never disappeared from the pages: people have always had something to share with their readers, “Ilyumzhinov said.
The ex-politician added that a man in Kalmykia could have gone into the steppe and disappeared – in this, in his opinion , the evil spirits are to blame, which confused him and led him to a lost place. “Our nomadic people are well enough aware of the treachery of the steppe to explain all accidents in a row by the intervention of otherworldly forces,” he said.
Ilyumzhinov also spoke about his gift of foresight. In 1998, he went on a business trip to Crimea and felt there a vague but persistent concern: “something is coming, some economic problems.” “I called Elista and ordered to pay all pensions, all benefits to the penny. And on August 12 we did it. A week later, there was a default in Russia, “the former politician concluded.
He explained this premonition by the fact that, being the head of the region, he received a large amount of information, and how a businessman could draw conclusions from it.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov led Kalmykia from 1993 to 2010. In 1995, he became president of the International Chess Federation, and in 2018, after being included in the US sanctions list, he was removed from his post. The politician has repeatedly declared his contact with aliens, but never provided evidence.