A Russian chess grandmaster has been slapped with a lengthy ban after he made a series of comments and statements showing support for Vladimir Putin 's bloody invasion of Ukraine.
Sergey Karjakin sparked outrage in the chess world and beyond just days after Russian forces invaded the country in which he was born and represented during his early days as a young prodigy. He switched allegiance to Russia as a 19-year-old and has competed under the white, blue and red flag ever since.
And despite two invasions of his homeland – the first when the Crimea was annexed in 2014 before the full-scale war which began last month – he is firmly in the pro-Putin camp. In an open letter addressed to the Russian leader, he parroted the Kremlin lines about the invasion being an act of "protection" towards the Ukrainian people.
