Translated material
“They were originally intended for dark business, dirty money and suspicious personalities.” Cyprus recalls "golden passports" in the Russian elite
The population of Cyprus decreased by several dozen people. News that do not deserve attention, if not for one “but”. We are talking about Russians - and not about ordinary citizens, but about those who are commonly called the "elite". Cyprus citizenship this month has already lost 8 Russian billionaires and 28 members of their families, mainly wives and children.
President of Cyprus Nikos Anastasiadis said last week that the government decided to take Cyprus passports from four Russians, but did not name their names. For him, local journalists did this, who quickly found out that we were talking about Mikhail Gutseriev, Alexander Ponomarenko, Vadim Moshkovich and Alexei Kuzmichev, whose fortune Forbes magazine estimated at about $ 15.6 billion.
The Cyprus government made this decision almost a week after the video message of Vladimir Zelensky to Cypriot lawmakers, in which he, among other things, asked to stop the Russians to give out visas and passports, as well as to close Cyprus ports for ships with the Russian flag.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjizplsipgc
The program of "gold" passports began working in Cyprus in 2007. To obtain citizenship, it is necessary to invest at least € 2 million in the island’s economy. According to Reuters, about 6,800 foreigners used the program over 13 years. Almost half of them, 2886 are Russians. In 2020, Russian “passport” investments exceeded, according to Central Bank of Cyprus, $ 100 million.
The program of "gold" passports was suspended in October 2020 after numerous accusations of corruption. Al JAZEERA journalists studied 2.5 thousand applications for citizenship and found that 43 applicants or 1.7% were convicted of committing crimes. Then, in 2019, it became known that Nicosia issued citizenship of a number of suspicious persons, including a cursory Malaysian financier Joe Law. As a result of a flashing loud scandal of passports and citizenship, 26 people then lost.
This week, by the first four of the Russian oligarchs who lost citizenship, the second was added. “Golden” Cyprus passports, as local journalists found out on April 21, lost Oleg Deripaska, Igor Kesaev, Grigory Berezkin and billionaire sister Alisher Usmanov, Gulbacacor Ismailov. Passports are also withdrawn from 11 members of their families. In addition to citizenship, the Russian oligarchs will also freeze assets on the island.
All former Cyprus citizens since April 8 have been under the sanctions of the European Union, in which, by the way, a total of 34 billionaires from Russia. As a result of the action of sanctions, some of them, by the way, have already dropped out of the list of billionaires. In total, Brussels in two months imposed sanctions against more than a thousand Russians.
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