Peter Doggers reports at chess.com that FIDE officials say UBS Bank was terminating FIDE's account because FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is included "on the sanctions list of the US Department of the Treasury" though "Ilyumzhinov himself has stated that the sanctions were not mentioned by UBS." Doggers notes that FIDE, also known as the World Chess Federation, has been unable to establish an account with another bank since UBS, a Switzerland bank, announced in February that the FIDE account would be terminated.

In November, the United States government included Ilyumzhinov in a list of people being sanctioned for purportedly assisting the Syria government. Also, because Ilyumzhinov lives in the Russian Federation and is a former president of the Republic of Kalmykia, sanctioning him is a twofer, striking at both Syria and Russia.