Alien abduction?

I just visited the website of The Sun newspaper in Britain. I was just scrolling around for some football when a face very familiar to me whizzed by. I scrolled back to take a second look.

Yes, there's that familiar face again. Fancy that, World Chess Federation president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov's face was in The Sun. But was the story about chess? No. Was it of him being the president of Russia's autonomous region, the Kalmik Republic? Maybe. Was it a story about .... alien abduction? Yes.

According to the story, Kirsan had admitted on Russian television last month that he had once been abducted by space aliens on 18 Sep 1997. He said that as he was falling asleep, he heard someone calling him from the balcony. He went outside and saw a spaceship which was a "half-transparent half tube". He then went inside and met human-like creatures in yellow spacesuits. He said he could not communicate with the aliens but was later given a tour of their spaceship.

I thought this was an old, familiar story, no? Definitely not an April Fool's joke; wrong date. Anyhow, the story's appearing all over the Internet. AFP has picked it up here.

If I were Kirsan, I would be very upset over this story. Would it be a calculated attempt by some people to derail his prospects of seeking re-election as the World Chess Federation president?