Contents tagged with Russian oligarchs
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Exodus of Russian oligarchs to Cyprus accelerates
The demand among Russians for property in European offshore havens with the consequent acquisition of citizenship is growing, finanz.ru reports.
Between January and August 2018, the number of applications by Russian citizens to purchase residential and commercial property in order to acquire Maltese or Cypriot citizenship rose by 40%, according to the consulting company Knight Frank.
Cyprus’s passport program requires applicants to invest at least €2 million in the economy, of which €500,000 …
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Washington to cut off Russian oligarchs from US property market
Russians may find themselves under new restrictions pertaining to the purchase of big-budget residential property in the US. American senators want to obligate companies insuring real estate deals to inform the Treasury about Russian natives purchasing expensive apartments in the country.
This possibility is discussed in a bill on new anti-Russian sanctions which was drafted by republicans Lindsey Graham, Robert Menendez, Cory Gardner and Ben Cardin. The document states that information on …
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Switzerland freezes bank accounts of Russian oligarch Vekselberg after US sanctions are imposed
Swiss banks have decided to freeze the personal bank accounts of Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg due to US sanctions, Forbes Russia reports. The journal cited sources close to Renova group, the Russian businessman’s primary asset.
According to Forbes, approximately one billion Swiss francs (1.01 billion dollars) have been frozen in Vekselberg's Swiss accounts. The oligarch’s lawyers are already trying to appeal this decision and obtain compensation for the freeze, but experts interviewed …
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Russia pays off $1 billion of oligarch Vekselberg’s debt
The Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg, who has recently been placed under sanctions, has paid off his loans to western banks using financial assistance from the government.
Vekselberg’s Renova Group repaid $1 billion to a consortium of European, Swiss and American banks, including JPMorgan, Credit Suisse, and UBS.
The loans needed to be repaid in a hurry. The US Treasury Department, which recently blacklisted Vekselberg and all of his companies, demanded that all deals be broken off by June 5 …
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Russia to start printing money to assist billionaires under sanctions
The Russian government has already given assistance to sanctioned billionaire Viktor Vekselberg’s Renova Group, and is currently working on financial support measures for Oleg Deripaska’s companies, including Rusal and the GAZ group, as announced on Monday by Russia’s acting Finance Minister Anton Siluanov.
Vekselberg, who asked the government for a total of $5.7 billion, was given assistance last week, Siluanov noted.
“I simply would not like to talk about amounts,” Siluanov responded when …
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Russian oligarchs hire US lobbyists to protect themselves from sanctions
Russian billionaires Alexander Skorobogatko and Alexander Ponomarenko have hired professional lobbyists in the US after they were included in the US Department of Treasury’s “Kremlin list” this past January. A corresponding notice from the lobby firm Qorvis MSLGROUP appeared last week in a special US Senate database.
The services that the company will provide to the Russian businessmen are rather abstract: "business interests [on behalf of Skorobogatko and Ponomarenko] and relations with the …
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Russia intends to create offshore zones to help oligarchs under sanctions
Russian authorities are discussing a project to create special offshore zones to support businessmen who fell under US sanctions, reported Vedomosti newspaper.
Vedomosti’s sources say that offshore zones could be establoished on Oktyabrsk Island in Kaliningrad and on Russky Island in the Far East. The draft bill was developed by the Ministry of Economic Development and it is now under peer review by the relevant departments. The Ministry plans for its adoption during the spring session.
As …
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Russian oligarchs lose $12 billion in a day due to US sanctions
The share prices of the largest Russian companies and the ruble exchange rate have plummeted due to US sanctions, Meduza news outlet reports.
Oleg Deripaska is among those to have suffered the greatest losses. The value of his companies crashed immediately after it was announced that they were under sanctions.
Rusal dropped by 50% on the Hong Kong Exchange and 25% on the Moscow Exchange. The company even issued a warning concerning possible technical default due to sanctions. Trades of En + …
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Putin's Press Secretary Peskov: There are no oligarchs in Russia
Press Secretary to the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said that the time when there were oligarchs in the country has passed.
“We consider the phrase ‘Russian oligarch’ to be inappropriate. It has been a long time since there were oligarchs in Russia. There are no oligarchs in Russia,” he said.
The representative of the Kremlin made this remark when a reporter asked him to comment on the fact that several oligarchs from Putin’s inner circle were invited to the U.S. for questioning.
“You …
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Joint media investigation reveals that Putin's friend Boris Rotenberg owns villas on the French Riviera
Boris Rotenberg, a Russian businessman close to Russian President Vladimir Putin owns two villas in the commune of Èze in France. The villas have a total area of 1300 square meters. Rotenberg also owns another villa under construction. This was stated in a joint investigation of Novaya Gazeta, Le Monde and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project or OCCRP.
Rotenberg filed his application to construct the first two villas in 2009. He planned to build a tennis court, a swimming pool …