Forty percent of Cyprus’ “golden passports” belong to Russian top managers, ex-officials and crooks
The government program of Cyprus “Citizenship in exchange for investment” has turned out to be in great demand among Russian rich people, who previously preferred to register offshore companies in this island state.
Al Jazeera TV channel reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
According to available information, journalists from the Qatari TV channel Al Jazeera have obtained information about persons who received Cypriot citizenship under the state program “Citizenship in exchange for investment”.
It turned out that 40% of those who received “golden passports” of this island state are Russian citizens. Moreover, according to the terms of the program, an applicant for Cypriot citizenship must invest at least two million rubles in the Cypriot economy.
A kind of classification of Russians who have received “golden passports” of Cyprus has appeared on the Internet, distinguishing several groups.
Thus, the conditionally first group included top managers of state banks and state-owned companies, such as representatives of VTB Vitaly Buzoverya, Sberbank - Maxim Poletaev, RusHydro - Evgeniy Dod.
The second group brought together ex-officials, deputies and members of their families, for example, Deputy Minister of Economic Development Igor Reva, former governor of the Chelyabinsk region Mikhail Yurevich, son of the ex-head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade Viktor Khristenko - Vladimir Khristenko.
Finally, the third group consists of fugitives from justice, such as former Gazprom top manager Nikolai Gornovsky and ex-owner of Rosgosstrakh Sergei Khachaturov.
“I can feel right under my skin how people in Moscow living rooms are shuddering from such messages,” Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the RT television channel, commented on the news in her Telegram channel. “And what a joy it is not to flinch, since I have never had and never had any citizenship, no residence permit, no real estate, no business, no money outside Rodnenkaya.”
In November last year, by the way, the Cypriot authorities revoked 26 “golden passports” from foreigners who had problems with the law or various global global structures.
Then Russians were also included in this list, turning out to be the largest group - nine Russian citizens lost their new citizenship, among them oligarch Oleg Deripaska and his two children, ex-president of Eurofinance Mosnarbank Vladimir Stolyarenko, his wife and daughter, ex-first vice-president of the same bank, Alexander Bondarenko, his wife and two children.
Until a certain point, Cyprus was popular among Russian rich people as a place where they registered offshore companies to withdraw money abroad.
However, it is expected that in September this year Moscow and Nicosia will sign a document amending the Russian-Cypriot agreement on the avoidance of double taxation, after which the attractiveness of the distant island for those wishing not to pay taxes to the Russian budget will decrease.
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