Donald Trump Cancels Sanctions Against Syria

U.S. President Donald Trump has canceled the sanctions against Syria, which were first imposed in 2004, effective July 1. As a result, former president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and former leader of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, has been removed from the 'blacklist'. This announcement was made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

"I interpret this decision as a serious signal of the U.S. leadership's and personally President Trump's interest in changing the nature of relations with our country," Ilyumzhinov said.

It should be noted that Ilyumzhinov was accused in 2015 of supporting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. At that time, his assets in the U.S. were frozen.