Russian Golden Visa Limited

European Countries Limit Issuance of Golden Passports for Wealthy Russians

Russia’s wealthy citizens will no longer benefit from the issuance of golden passports, which permit them to invest in a country in exchange for citizenship after governments across Europe have agreed to limit the granting of such passports for Russians due to the latter’s invasion of Ukraine.

The golden passports also permit their holders as well as their family members to move freely within the Schengen Zone countries. In addition, besides the European countries, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada have also announced that they would limit the sale of golden passports for wealthy Russian individuals.

Such a decision has been confirmed through a statement published by the Commission of the European Union: “We commit to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship—so-called golden passports—that let wealthy Russians connected to the Russian government become citizens of our countries and gain access to our financial systems,” the statement published by the Commission of the EU reads.

Western Leaders’ response comes as part of restrictive financial measures imposed on Russia after the latter’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24. According to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the measure aspires to “cripple Putin’s ability to finance his war machine.” “Putin embarked on a path aiming to destroy Ukraine. But what he is also doing, in fact, is destroying the future of his own country,” she pointed out in this regard, as reported by Insider.

Among other sanctions imposed on Russia also included the ejection of some Russian banks from the SWIFT banking system. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led a large number of European countries to close their airspace to Russian air traffic. In addition, the Baltic States, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia also banned Russian airlines from their airspace, urging other countries to take similar measures.

In this regard, the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that the EU Member States would close their airspace to Russian aircraft. Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal, Norway, and Finland also imposed bans on airlines from Russia. Besides the countries mentioned above, the UK, Bulgaria, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic also closed their airspace from Russian planes.

Many thanks to our friends at schengenvisainfo.com