Rich Russians who received Cypriot citizenship through the now defunct investment programme are facing an asset freeze under the EU and US sanctions push, as are many others with businesses ties to the island.
Earlier this month reports stated that at least five people on the EU’s sanctions list have accounts in Cypriot banks, while billionaires with Cypriot citizenship such as Vadim Moshkovitch were placed on the list on March 9.
Others with companies or other business ties to Cyprus are also facing the squeeze, such as Andrey Melnichenko – whose companies applied for reregistration in Cyprus – and was also slapped with sanctions.
Local media identified many others on the list with links to Cyprus, such as Dmitry Pumpyansky and his family, Alexander Vinokurov (married to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s daughter), Mikhail Oseevsky and others, such as Alexander Ponoparenko (with Cypriot citizenship).
The shockwave following the unprecedented scale of the sanctions have been felt in Cyprus, leading both the Pancyprian Bar Association and the Institute of Certified Public Accountants (Selk) to write to the foreign and interior ministries on March 3 and again on Wednesday, seeking clarifications and guidance.
Both the legal and financial services are seemingly spooked over the potential implications of the sanctions, as has Russia’s retaliatory measures against nations which took “unfriendly actions” against it – including Cyprus.
In any case, Finance Minister Constantinos Petrides sought to calm the nerves of investors and others as he said last week that the Cypriot banking system has no exposure to Russia.
“The economic sanctions imposed against Russia following its invasion of Ukraine are not affecting Cyprus to a large extent as the island’s banking system has no exposure to Russia,” he said at the time.
Some of those on the sanctions list linked to Cyprus have previously grabbed local headlines, most recently Melnichenko whose superyacht – estimated to have cost $600m – was parked off Protaras in October, 2021.
The EU sanctions list gave the following description of him: “Melnichenko belongs to the most influential circle of Russian businesspeople with close connections to the Russian government”.
It added that he is therefore involved in economic sectors providing a substantial source of revenue to the Russian government, which is responsible for the annexation of Crimea and the destabilisation of Ukraine on 24 February.
Melnichenko was said to be worth $19.8bn as of October.
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