In the near future, the UK may curtail the program of issuing “golden visas”, which was called the ideal tool for laundering “dirty money”.
The conditions for issuing visas have changed before, but now the discussion has resumed against the backdrop of the situation around Ukraine. If the British nevertheless follow the principle, then rich Russians who have fallen in love with the “golden” program may face not only the cancellation of visas, but also criminal cases, experts interviewed by the Company believe.
Sources announced the possible abolition of the “gold” visa regime in the next few weeks Financial Times And The Times in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the country. The agency did not deny or confirm the information, but recalled that the program had already been reformed in 2015 and 2019, but did not rule out new changes.
In the 12 months to September 2021, the UK issued 798 golden visas. The Russians received 82 of them. At the same time, 210 such documents were issued to Chinese citizens during the same period.
The conditions for issuing golden visas were first tightened in 2015, after the crisis in Ukraine and the subsequent annexation of Crimea. The next stage of regulation came in 2019, after the poisoning of former GRU colonel Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury. Today’s discussions are connected with the situation around Ukraine. In parallel, the British authorities are going to resume the fight against “dirty money” that “flooded the country.”
The UK launched the program in 2008. To obtain such a visa, you need to confirm the desire to invest in the UK from £2 million to £10 million (about 203.4 million rubles). In 2015, the rules were tightened – the country’s authorities checked exactly how the applicant received his funds. In 2019, a new condition appeared – the presence of a bank account in the country and proof of ownership of funds that are planned to be invested in the UK economy for at least two years from the date of application.
In exchange for investments, wealthy foreigners will be able to live in the UK and later apply for citizenship.
Back in 2018, the country’s authorities began checking those who received a “golden visa” between 2008 and 2015, that is, before the rules for issuing them were tightened. At that time, more than 3,000 visas came under scrutiny, of which over 700 were issued to Russians. In addition to the investors themselves, members of their families also received visas, so last year it was reported that more than 6.3 thousand visas were being checked, writes The Guardian. The results of this inspection have not yet been published by the authorities.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich in 2018 was unable to renew my UK visa. After that, he received Israeli citizenship in a fairly short time. It is not known whether he was among those 700 Russians who were checked, notes The Bell.
“Dirty money”
Despite the tightening, the program of “golden visas” was still criticized. The country’s authorities feared that it could be abused by corrupt officials and super-rich residents of Russia, China and Uzbekistan. Against the background of the tense situation around Ukraine, the British society was again outraged by the “condescending” approach of the authorities towards Russian billionaires. At the end of January, British parliamentarians demanded stop the golden visa program. Moreover, Foreign Minister Liz Truss did not rule out the possibility of confiscation of the property of Russian businessmen in London as part of a tightening program. When asked if these measures would affect British investors, Truss said that “democracy and freedom are more important than momentary financial interests.”
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, in response to this reminded about the list of corrupt officials whom Moscow had previously asked to extradite. Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov named Truss’s words are a cause for concern for international financial institutions.
Back in 2020, the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee released a report calling the program an ideal vehicle for money laundering and London a “laundromat” for offshore funds.
A week ago, the Center for American Progress, close to the US presidential administration, called the UK the main haven for the Russian rich and their money, and also called on London to take more decisive action in the fight against money laundering.
Won’t go to live in London
“Golden” visa programs are a double-edged sword: on the one hand, an instrument of influence on the elites of other countries, on the other, the risk of receiving not quite clean money, notes political scientist Pavel Salin. “The foreign elite poses an increased risk because it uses corrupt practices, which corrupts local government agencies,” he explained in a conversation with Kompaniya.
The tightening of the program is more related to the political situation than to the fierce fight against money laundering, political analyst Natalia Eliseeva told the “Company”. She recalled that from 2008 to 2015, no one asked the question about the origin of the applicants’ funds for investments in the British economy, and after the aggravation of the situation, “everyone was sharply interested in money.”
However, it is premature to talk about the 100% cancellation of the “golden passports” program, since the discussion is not being resumed for the first time, the expert continues. “Perhaps this topic will also be used for manipulation … But if the British go on principle and cancel the program, this will either lead to the annulment of visas, or to sanctions against the recipients of documents and, possibly, to criminal cases,” Eliseeva did not rule out. She noted that visa recipients, in particular, could be accused of corruption.
The initiative to abolish the “golden visas” is an attempt to take away the electorate from the Labor Party, which has recently been seriously strengthening, President of the Center for Strategic Communications, political scientist Dmitry Abzalov is sure. He noted that high prices in the real estate market lead to the dominance of non-residents. This in turn causes irritation in British society.
“It has become difficult for big businessmen to run away from serious sanctions. If the program is closed, Greece, Malta and other respectable destinations like Germany will remain. Another alternative is Israel, whose passport has access to a large number of jurisdictions and a free regime with the US and the EU,” the expert told the Company.
Abzalov added that wealthy Russians choose London because of British case law and the non-extradition of Russian entrepreneurs. A significant part of Russian companies were previously placed on the London Stock Exchange because of their cheapness, which also became one of the reasons for the increased demand for British “golden visas”.