This just in from the News Of The Weird Department.
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the colorful president of Russia's Kalmykia Republic, claimed in an April television interview that aliens visited him in his Moscow apartment in September 1997. (Here's the video in Russian.)
Kirsan IlyumzhinovHere's "The Moscow Times" write-up of Ilyumzhinov's remarkable claim:
Ilyumzhinov told television host Vladimir Pozner on Channel One on April 26 that he had spent several hours in the company of aliens after they visited his apartment in downtown Moscow on Sept. 18, 1997. He said he was falling asleep when he heard someone calling him from the balcony. When he went there, Ilyumzhinov said, he saw a "semi-transparent half tube" that he entered to meet humanlike creatures in yellow spacesuits.
"I am often asked which language I used to talk to them. Perhaps it was on a level of the exchange of the ideas," Ilyumzhinov said, speaking solemnly.
He said the aliens gave him a tour of their spaceship.
When he asked them why they had not gone on television to reveal themselves to humans, they replied that they are not yet ready, Ilyumzhinov said.
He said the aliens returned him to his home in the morning — just as his driver and two associates were about to initiate a citywide search for him after not finding him in the locked apartment.
But that's not even the oddest part.. This is the oddest part (again, courtesy of "The Moscow Times"):
Ilyumzhinov finishes his fourth term in office in October. Medvedev will now have to decide whether to renominate him for another five years.
-- Brian Whitmore
Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the colorful president of Russia's Kalmykia Republic, claimed in an April television interview that aliens visited him in his Moscow apartment in September 1997. (Here's the video in Russian.)
Ilyumzhinov told television host Vladimir Pozner on Channel One on April 26 that he had spent several hours in the company of aliens after they visited his apartment in downtown Moscow on Sept. 18, 1997. He said he was falling asleep when he heard someone calling him from the balcony. When he went there, Ilyumzhinov said, he saw a "semi-transparent half tube" that he entered to meet humanlike creatures in yellow spacesuits.
"I am often asked which language I used to talk to them. Perhaps it was on a level of the exchange of the ideas," Ilyumzhinov said, speaking solemnly.
He said the aliens gave him a tour of their spaceship.
When he asked them why they had not gone on television to reveal themselves to humans, they replied that they are not yet ready, Ilyumzhinov said.
He said the aliens returned him to his home in the morning — just as his driver and two associates were about to initiate a citywide search for him after not finding him in the locked apartment.
But that's not even the oddest part.. This is the oddest part (again, courtesy of "The Moscow Times"):
Andrei Lebedev, a member of the Duma's Security Committee from the Liberal Democratic Party faction, said in a statement circulated [May 5] that he had sent a letter to [President Dmitry] Medvedev on April 29, urging the president to ask Ilyumzhinov how his meeting with aliens had influenced his rule of Kalmykia and whether the aliens had attempted to learn anything from him.
Lebedev also asked Medvedev whether Ilyumzhinov had ever informed the Kremlin of his contacts with aliens and whether a procedure was in place for senior officials who know state secrets — like Ilyumzhinov — to report such contacts to the Kremlin.
He called on United Russia, which holds a majority in the Kalmyk legislature and thus can propose presidential candidates to Medvedev, to consider excluding Ilyumzhinov from the list of candidates.
The Kremlin's press service declined to comment on the issue...
Lebedev also asked Medvedev whether Ilyumzhinov had ever informed the Kremlin of his contacts with aliens and whether a procedure was in place for senior officials who know state secrets — like Ilyumzhinov — to report such contacts to the Kremlin.
He called on United Russia, which holds a majority in the Kalmyk legislature and thus can propose presidential candidates to Medvedev, to consider excluding Ilyumzhinov from the list of candidates.
The Kremlin's press service declined to comment on the issue...
Ilyumzhinov finishes his fourth term in office in October. Medvedev will now have to decide whether to renominate him for another five years.
-- Brian Whitmore