Italy suspends 'golden visas' for Russians, Belarusians.

Italy has suspended the Investor Visa program for Russian and Belarusian citizens, the country's Business Ministry announced[1] on its website. The Italian magazine Altreconomia reported[2] on Aug.

8 that the Italian government made the decision in mid-July, more than a year after the European Commission recommended this measure after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Altreconomia said that the Italian authorities issued at least 32 Russian citizens with two-year "investor" visas out of 36 applications, based on data provided by the business ministry.

This means that the "golden visas" issued to Russian citizens outnumbered those awarded to the U.S. (12) and the U.K. (12) nationals, the outlet commented. The data obtained by Altreconomia did not reveal the number of "investor visas" issued for Belarusians and Russians in 2023. The European Commission called[3] on the EU members in March 2022 to suspend their investor visa programs for Russian and Belarusian nationals.

"Some Russian or Belarusian nationals who are subject to sanctions or are significantly supporting the war in Ukraine might have acquired EU citizenship or privileged access to the EU, including to travel freely in the Schengen area, under these schemes," the European Commission said.

NYT: Russian oligarchs enjoy luxury life in UK under sanctions exemptions Sanctioned Russian oligarchs spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury life in the U.K. thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, the New York Times reported on July 27.

News Editor

Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press.

He also volunteers as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukrainer.

Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.

References

1. ^ announced (investorvisa.mise.gov.it)
2. ^ reported (altreconomia.it)
3. ^ called (www.reuters.com)
4. ^ NYT: Russian oligarchs enjoy luxury life in UK under sanctions exemptionsSanctioned Russian oligarchs spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on luxury life in the U.K. thanks to numerous sanction exemptions, the New York Times reported on July 27. (kyivindependent.com)