The authorities of Cyprus confiscated the bank deposits of Russians for € 105 million

The Finance Minister noted that any Cypriot company owned by a Russian oligarch from the sanctions list is now under "increased attention." At the same time, the minister noted that often Russian businessmen do not indicate their names, which makes it difficult to identify and block such assets. According to the minister's estimates, in total, bank deposits of Russians in the amount of about 5.6 billion dollars are placed in Cyprus.

In addition, the minister told CBS News that the previously received passports of Russian businessmen from the sanctions lists are now in the process of being revoked. In April last year, it was reported about the deprivation of "golden passports" of eight Russians who fell under sanctions. Their names were not called, but it was noted that it could be, in particular, about Mikhail Gutseriev, Alexey Kuzmichev, Vadim Moshkovich and Alexander Ponomarenko. The Cypriot authorities have promised to take away citizenship also from family members of Russian businessmen who have fallen under sanctions. 

It's worth reminding that since 2007, 2,886 Russians have received Cyprus passports in exchange for investments in the country's economy. To obtain citizenship, foreigners needed to invest two million euros in the country's economy. The program was suspended in 2020 after the identification of fraud with passports. For example, more than half of the people who obtained citizenship in this way were not eligible to use this program. In addition, the documents were issued to about 3.8 thousand relatives of investors, which was also not provided for by the program.