The Minister of the Interior will assess the situation with golden passports
Until the scandal over the Cyprus gold passport program subsides.
It was provoked by a series of articles and videos published on August 23 by Al-Jazeera on the island’s citizenship programme for investment. A police investigation is currently under way because of this information.
Interior Minister Nicos Nouris will provide details on a number of recently issued passports today, Wednesday.
However, it is likely that he will not refer to specific cases mentioned in recent reports from the Qatari edition of Al-Jazeera. They say that Cyprus, thanks to its Citizenship for Investment programme, is a safe haven for criminals from all over the world.
According to Al-Jazeera, almost half of the applications for the period 2017-2019 came from Russia.
Some of those who applied for a Cyprus passport had previously held official government positions.
Those who received their passports included former Deputy Minister Igor Reva and former Russian MP Vadim Moshkovich.
The list also includes Vitaly Evdokimenko and Vladimir Khristenko, former head of a subsidiary of the state railway.
Apart from Russians, businessmen from Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Brazil and Hong Kong received golden passports. Of the 1400 passport holders for investment, 35 “new Cypriots” are wanted for criminal and economic crimes in their country.
