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28th March 2024
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Big losers may apply for citizenship

President Nicos AnastasiadesCYPRUS President Nicos Anastasiades said Sunday that foreigners with bank deposits in Cyprus who lost at least €3 million under an EU bailout for the island would be given passports.

“Non-resident investors who held deposits prior to the bailout and lost at least €3 million will be eligible to apply for Cypriot citizenship,” he told a Russian business conference in Limassol.

Furthermore, the “Citizenship by Investment” programme will be revised to reduce the minimum investment required for obtaining Cypriot citizenship to €3 million and will widen its eligible investment sectors.

The existing restriction, whereby assets worth €15 million have to be committed for up to 5 years, will be lifted to permit the committed assets to be readily available for use.

“We believe that a number of measures to be adopted could on the one hand mitigate to some extent the damage the Russian business community has endured,” he added.

He said the measures, which primarily affecting Russians, would be approved at a two-day cabinet meeting starting on Monday and that “these decisions will be deployed in a fast-track manner and other measures, currently under consideration.”

The government is also “examining various scenarios which could permit the compensation of part of the losses which shareholders of banks, holders of debt securities and depositors have suffered,” Anastasiades added.

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10 COMMENTS

  1. I don’t think it is just rich Russian’s Peter and even if it is who is to say they or indeed anyone else did not work just as hard as your builder friend to get it?

  2. Is it just about wealth?

    The 30,000 Euros lost to my neighbour, a builder by trade who had put money aside and saved to build his own house meant so much more to him than 100,000’s of Euro lost to some rich Russian oligarch.

  3. Continued (from the book of Alashyia)…

    And the Sons of Alashyia did spie unto the Hyperboreans who did flock aplenty to the promised land for there to spend their ENTIRELY legitimately acquired wealth.

    And a great wind did sweep away much of this wealth and the Hyperboreans were sorely vexed.

    They had had to withstand the constant accusations of depositing substantial sums in Alashyia, to the tune of 15m newly cleaned shekels, without much check on origin of funds, in order to gain access to the pleasant pastures that lay beyond in the lands of Pompous Euro Pilot (scheme) (where it had been until very recently MOSTLY unlikely they could ever be traced and KILLED by the former owners of these shekels). These slanderous and COMPLETELY FALSE rumours did vex them more than the terrible winds and rains which now befell them.

    So they did consult amongst themselves and did reach for the sacred Kalashnikov in order to smite the Sons of Alashyia like there was no tomorrow.

    And the Sons of Alashyia were sore afraid. In their pants they did concoct a unholy, sticky mess, but, being a cunning and resourceful breed, they did speak unto the Sons of Hyperborea and uttered they the following words:

    “Fear not (again), trusted and most welcome Sons of Hyperborea, the 15m newly cleaned shekels, without much check on origin of funds, that would have allegedly granted you access to the pleasant pastures of the lands of Pompous Euro Pilot (scheme), now lay in ruins. But we have just reduced the amount required to only €3m shekels, so you can gain access to the PEurozone anyway (if that was indeed your intention, which OBVIOUSLY it was not).

    And the Sons of Hyperborea did ponder such a move. And the trigger finger did relax its grip on the holy Kalashnikov. Partially…

  4. Hey Costas, if I was loaded with ill begotten gains and flush with cash, I would welcome an official passport especially if it allowed me blue channel entry into the EU.
    Bonus!

  5. I feel sorry for the average Cypriot who are on the whole nice people but they also have to live with all the corruption or nepotism from local government up to the top were the Attorney General has the right to suspend a prosecution but can see a family destroyed by being put out on the street because a lawyer did not do his job, or a bank allowed a developer to run up huge mortgages without any controls being exercised. Why does the AG not intervene on such obvious lack of justice. I don’t think a Cyprus passport is all that desirable!!

  6. Strange Scenario indeed. ‘We’ve robbed you of at least €3m Sorry about that ….but, don’t worry, stay with us and become a ‘Preferred Citizen’. And, ‘by the way we aren’t sure yet if we will be staying in the Euro, or the EU, or clobbering you on any properties you might own……..but it is a nice place with 320 sunny days a year – and banks who really know how to look after their customers!’. Don’t THINK so!

  7. I hope it has occurred to Naive Nick that it is quite possible that those who have become ‘Big Losers’, due to the actions of RoC Governments, both past and present, may not actually want to become Citizens of the very Republic that shafted them and like those who have been fleeced in the property market, may want to get out as soon as.

  8. Is this serious. €3 million for a passport. What sort of “citizen” are they trying to attract. Maybe for another few million you could get a Cypriot organ or two. I wonder how many Russians who have just had millions of Euros lifted from their accounts will consider a Cypriot passport fair exchange. In the event that the deal is considered a fair exchange then it will be interesting to watch the bidding on Ebay. A years supply of Zivania should be offered to those who lost under 3 million.

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