The program of economic citizenship, which the government persistently implements despite warnings from the European Union (EU), has opened a new problem - whether Montenegro becomes a refuge for Russian citizens who are under sanctions due to Russia's attack on Ukraine.
According to the program, which was launched in 2019, a total of 409 foreigners received Montenegrin citizenship, of which the majority were Russians, 241 or almost two thirds, according to the data Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro (CIN-CG) received from the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP).
The Ministry of Internal Affairs claims that among the Russian citizens who received a Montenegrin passport, there are none who are on the sanctions list of Montenegro due to Russian aggression against Ukraine.
When asked if they are family members Vladimir Blotski, who is under sanctions as a member of the Russian Duma, the Ministry of Interior responded that they do not keep records per family unit, but individually per applicant.
"For this reason, it is not possible to check whether the family members of the person whose name and surname are mentioned have acquired Montenegrin citizenship," said the MUP.
Blotsky found himself under sanctions because, as explained, as a member of the Duma he voted for a resolution "on the need to recognize the People's Republic of Donetsk and the People's Republic of Luhansk and thus supported and implemented actions and policies that undermine the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine and the further destabilization of Ukraine." .
She received Montenegrin citizenship based on investment Julia Blotskaya, her daughter and son.
The Russian portal Life announced that it could be the wife and children of a member of the Duma.
"Citizenship by investment is popular with disreputable individuals who hide their income or are on the run from the law. "Life studied which of the Russians needed the 'golden passports' of Montenegro," the text reads.
In non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which monitor the granting of Montenegrin citizenships, they believe that this program should have already been abolished, because the granting of citizenship to citizens of Russia could pose a significant problem.
Executive Director of the Center for Civil Liberties (CEGAS) Marija Popović-Kalezic for CIN-CG, he says that the Government clearly sees a financial interest when it comes to this type of citizenship award.
"Here arises the possibility of corrupt activities, the risk of tax evasion, escaping from the laws of the home countries, as well as the financing of terrorism and bad interference from other countries," she said.
Executive Director of Action for Social Justice (ASP) Ines Mrdovic warns that the country's European path suffers because of this program, and for the sake of short-term benefits for the budget.
"It was completely wrong to open the door for millions of potentially 'dirty money' to be laundered in our country. This not only endangers the European path of the country, but at the same time significantly 'holds back' any serious investor from coming," she told CIN-CG.
He also adds that the procedures for freezing the assets of Russian citizens under sanctions can be controversial because the question is whether the Montenegrin legal system undertakes all legal actions to prevent potential compensation claims against the state.
Program associate at the Center for Civic Education (CGO), Damir Suljević for CIN-CG he says that by awarding the so-called honorary citizenships, and especially through the most problematic basis - the Economic Citizenship Program - Montenegro has mapped itself among the havens for controversial figures around the world, including from Russia.
He states that, according to the regulations of Montenegro, all those who obtained Montenegrin citizenship in this way will be treated by Montenegrin authorities, as well as all other Montenegrin citizens, regardless of the possible existence of dual citizenship and the fact that the second citizenship may be the citizenship of the Russian Federation.
"The fact that these persons also possess Montenegrin citizenship can be an obstacle to the consistent implementation of sanctions against Russia and Russian citizens, both by Montenegro, for obvious reasons, and by other countries that have joined the sanctions," said Suljević.
The program, lasting three years, was designed and implemented in 2019 by the previous Government of the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which was replaced in the elections in August 2020. The first golden passport was issued in February 2020.
The plan was for investors, in exchange for a Montenegrin passport, to invest in development projects in tourism, agriculture and the processing industry. There is little interest in agricultural projects (one project), and no public invitation has been issued for the processing industry. On the list of development projects in the field of tourism, within the program, there are currently 12 projects related to the construction of hotels according to the condo or mixed model, which means that they contain apartments for sale.
The conditions for obtaining a Montenegrin passport were originally an investment of at least 450.000 euros in one of the development projects in Podgorica and the coast, or 250.000 euros in the northern or central region, as well as donations to less developed municipalities, but this year the Government will tighten them. Now all investors must submit to the Government a bank guarantee in the value of 50 percent of the investment within a month. In addition, applicants for citizenship, in addition to 100.000 euros for the Fund for the Development of Underdeveloped Municipalities, will have to allocate another 100.000 euros to the Innovation Fund.
Referring to the documents of the Government of Montenegro, the portal Life reminds that the exact identification of the winners of "golden passports" is not possible, because the Montenegrin authorities publish only the name and place of birth and the names of family members who also receive citizenship. However, using indirect signs, "the most reliable of which is the possession of half a million euros" or the place of birth, the portal identified some.
"For example, birthplace Vladimir Pravdivi, who received Montenegrin citizenship on August 5, is a town with the rare name Arzgir, in the Krasnodar region. He was born there Vladimir Anatolyevich Pravdivij, general director of the advertising site Avito. Or the city of Tselinograd - formerly Nursultan, mentioned in the application for citizenship of a certain Oleg Safonov - allows you to see in it the former head of Rosturism, who was born there. Aleksandar Roslavcev probably from Moscow Aleksandar Nikolaevich Roslavtsev, financial director of Global Ports, the leading operator of container terminals on the Russian market," the text reads.
Global Ports is also present in Montenegro. Since 2013, that Turkish company has been the majority owner of the Bar Port of Adria (former container terminal and general cargo, part of the Port of Bar).
The MUP will confiscate passports from Russians under sanctions
The MUP announced that all those who have received Montenegrin citizenship and are on the list of sanctions will have it revoked.
"The MUP has taken actions within its competence in this matter and by checking through the records, it has been determined that on July 21, 2022, there is not a single person who has been admitted to Montenegrin citizenship, and is on the list of persons who have been subject to international restrictive measures" , they said from that government department.
After several delays, on April 8, the government formally adopted sanctions against Russia due to its military aggression against Ukraine, and after that the government institutions should freeze the assets of a number of Russian citizens and companies in Montenegro and ban the work of Russian government media. The airspace of Montenegro was previously closed to Russian planes, and on April 19, the Agency for Electronic Media introduced a ban on any content of the Russian media companies Rasha Tudej (RT) and Sputnik.
The list of those sanctioned includes, among others, the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov, spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova, chief executive officer of the state oil company Rosneft Igor Sechin, chief executive officer of the oil and gas company Transneft Nikolai Tokarev, Bank of Russia...
On June 10, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that 44 properties of 34 Russian citizens who had previously been sanctioned were frozen. The Government did not publish the names of Russian citizens whose assets were frozen, although the list with the names of Russians under sanctions was published on the Government's website.
The Cadastre Administration did not answer CIN-CG's questions about which Russian citizens had their property frozen.
However, the names were leaked to the public, and it was announced that the assets of the former head of Putin's cabinet were frozen To Sergey Ivanov, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration Aleksei Gromov, to Duma deputies from Putin's United Russia Viktor Kazakov, To Anna Kuznetsova i Vladimir Vasiljev...
One record of frozen property entered in the cadastre
According to the data received by the NGO Actions for Social Justice, by the middle of this month, one record of frozen property on the territory of Budva was registered in the cadastre, while an administrative procedure related to the freezing of the property of a Russian citizen in Žabljak was conducted in parallel.
"The Administration for Cadastre and State Property entered a record of restrictions on the disposal and acquisition of funds and/or other property (freezing): Municipality of Budva - Bashir's Marat, KO Bečići, LN 432; Municipality of Žabljak - the administrative procedure for one person is ongoing and until the final completion of the procedure, we cannot provide the data", said the director of the Administration. Koča Đurišić in a letter sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on July 18 of this year.
Marat Bashirov has been on the sanctions list since 2014 as the former so-called "President of the Council of Ministers of the People's Republic of Lugansk".
According to data from the cadastre, residential buildings with an area of about 432 and 80 square meters, in which there are several Russian citizens, are registered in the real estate register number 160.
The note was also registered on the property, i.e. a four-story building of about 80 square meters, in co-ownership Olga Shcherbakova, Ekaterina Chernenko Ruslanova i Tatjana Kestanova. As written in the cadastre, they inherited the property.
The program should have been canceled earlier
Popović-Kalezić told CIN-CG that the decision to grant economic citizenship had to be canceled significantly earlier, especially due to the lack of absolute control over the applicants, as well as the non-transparency of the evidence on the basis of which they received Montenegrin citizenship.
"There were not rare cases that persons who were under criminal-legal supervision in their home countries also received citizenship on this basis," she reminds.
In Montenegro, even before the program was formalized, the former prime minister of Thailand Thaksin Shinawatra, convicted of corruption, received Montenegrin citizenship in 2008 in exchange for promised investments in the country.
Popović-Kalezić added that she is encouraged by the fact that so far, the existing government has not granted a single economic citizenship, and there are 104 applicants and 221 members of their families in the procedure, that is, a total of 325 applications.
Suljević reminds that the CGO has already emphasized that there is no obstacle for the Government to cancel the program before its expiration, because that would not deny any right to those who have already applied, and whose applications would have to be processed according to the regulations that were valid in moment of the application.
He states that it is also the message of the EU representative for foreign affairs and security policy Joseph Borelj just one in a series of warnings coming from top European officials on the issue.
Last month, during his visit to Montenegro, Borelj said that the European Commission (EC) expects Montenegro to end the "golden passport" scheme and align its visa policy with EU policy.
The EC has repeatedly said that they are carefully monitoring this program in Montenegro, and earlier they took measures against Malta and Cyprus due to the scandal with the granting of citizenships. These countries have raised billions of euros by selling thousands of passports, in some cases providing EU citizenship to people wanted by their home countries.
In 2010, the Montenegrin government started the program of economic citizenship, but gave it up at the request of the EU. Due to pressure from Brussels, the program was not launched in 2016 either.
Krivokapić's government "sold" 301 passports, Marković's 108
According to the data that CIN-CG received from the Ministry of Interior for the period from January 1, 2019 to June 10, 2022, apart from 241 Russians, citizenship decisions were also issued to eight Ukrainian citizens, three from Belarus and six from China.
Among the others who obtained Montenegrin citizenship in this way are citizens of Egypt, United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Kazakhstan, Switzerland, USA, India, Kuwait, Hong Kong...
The government of Zdravko Krivokapić approved 301 decisions on admission to Montenegrin citizenship, based on a special investment program, while the previous government of Duško Marković issued 108 "golden passports".
The program was supposed to "sell" two thousand passports in three years (from January 2019 to the end of 2021), so due to low interest, the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić planned to cancel it at the end of 2021. However, on December 30, 2021, it made a decision to extend the program until the end of 2022 with the explanation that the investors did not have time to complete the projects due to the covid crisis. However, three new projects were included in the list of development projects - the construction of the Liko Soho Bar Hotel, Magnum Kolašin and Hotel "B" in Kolašin, based on the condo business model.
Liko Soho was included in the list in October last year for the mandate of the Government of Zdravko Krivokapić. The investor of this condo hotel is Liko Soho Group, whose founders are Liko Holding from Ukraine and Soho Group.
In June of this year, the Government of Dritan Abazović included Magnum Kolašin in the list of development projects. The investor is the company Magnum development from Podgorica, and the owners, according to the data from the register, are Russian citizens Dmitry Yudin, Olga Chilikina i Zlata Merkurjeva.
The construction of Hotel "B" Kolašin was included in the list of development projects in July, and the investor is the company Ski resort Kolašin 1450 businessmen Zoran Bećirović.
On the list of development projects in the field of tourism is the hotel Breza in Kolašin, by a Kazakh Igor Bidil, owner of the companies Velja voda and CG resort, who received Montenegrin citizenship in 2017
The project Durmitor Hotel and Villas Grka is also on the list Petros Statis, tenant of Sveti Stefan, who also has Montenegrin citizenship. There is also Bjelasica 1450, which is being built in Kolašin by Zetagradnja from Podgorica, as well as the Kolašin hotel K16, whose investor is the consortium Kolašin 1600, which consists of the companies Ski resort Kolašin 1600 by Zoran Bećirović and Gener2 SHPK from Tirana, owned by Albanian businessmen Bashki, Astrite i Ahmet Uljaj. And the Hotel "D" project with annex "E" in Kolašin is an investment of Bećirović's company Ski Resort Kolašin 1450.
The list of development projects includes the Boka Place hotel of the company Adriatic Marinas-Porto Montenegro, as well as the Montis hotel & resort in Kolašin, owned by the company Montenegro luxury hotels and resorts. Radoica Vuković i Vitaly Gorny.
Amma Resort Čanj is a project of a businessman Tomislav Čelebić, and the Cruiser hotel in Budva is being built by the Podgorica companies Master inženjering and Bemax.
The government removed six projects from the development list, namely Bobotov Hotel & Resort in Žabljak, Elite Hotel & Residence in Kolašin, Hotel with villas 4*, Žabljak, Kraljičina beach Miločer, Black Pine Mojkovac and Kolašin Resort & Spa hotel.
As explained by the Government, the projects were removed from the list due to non-fulfillment of investment obligations and non-delivery of a bank guarantee.
The government is silent about Deripaska
Russian businessman and former owner of Podgorica Aluminum Plant (KAP) and Nikšić Bauxite Mine, Oleg Deripaska it is not on the list of sanctions of the Government of Montenegro.
Deripaska, known as a close ally of Vladimir Putin and the Russian aluminum king, is under sanctions from the EU, Great Britain and the United States.
The EU put Deripaska on the list of sanctions on April 8 of this year, as a "high-ranking oligarch of the Kremlin".
The British government imposed sanctions on Deripaska in March, saying his assets in the UK are estimated at around £XNUMX billion and that the industrialist is a "former business partner". Roman Abramovich, the former owner of the British football club Chelsea, who is also under sanctions as "one of the few oligarchs from the 1990s who retained their glory under Putin".
The USA imposed sanctions on Deripaska and about 20 other Russian businessmen back in 2018 in an attempt to punish Moscow for "global malign activity" and interference in the American elections.
Deripaska filed a lawsuit because of this, but lost the case in an American court. His companies Rusal, En+group, Basic element ltd, Russian Machines, GAZ Group...
Deripaska was rated in the Russian media as "Putin's favorite industrialist", and the American media described him as "one of the oligarchs that Putin regularly addresses" and "a more or less permanent member of the delegation that accompanies the president on his travels."
Neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Cabinet of Prime Minister Dritan Abazović answered the question of CIN-CG why Deripaska is not on the list of sanctions of Montenegro. The MUP said that they are not responsible for this issue.
Deripaska bought KAP and Bauxite Mines in 2005 and managed them until 2009 on the basis of majority ownership, and from then until the introduction of bankruptcy in 2013, with 29,36 percent of the shares held by the Government, based on the Settlement Agreement.
The Russian tycoon was close to the current president, then prime minister, Milo Đukanović. The media announced that when the negotiations on the sale of KAP "stuck" in 2005, Deripaska and Đukanović resolved it "in private", with the famous "Chivas" in the former Grand cafe in Podgorica.
He was close to Deripaska and the current advisor to the president Milan Rocen. According to audio recordings of conversations between Rocen and Deripaska, which were leaked in 2019, Rocen, then the ambassador of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro in Moscow, begged Deripaska to use his influence on the Canadian billionaire Peter Munk (which later bought Arsenal in Tivat and created Porto Montenegro), so that he could lobby for appropriate referendum conditions from the Americans, i.e. the Contact Group.
Already in 2008, Deripaska began to complain about the crisis in KAP and that he did not get all the information about the factory. For this reason, in 2009, Montenegro was visited by the Russian Minister for Emergency Situations, now the Minister of Defense. Sergei Shoigu, who came whenever there was an "emergency".
In 2004, during his visit to Montenegro, Shoigu responded strongly to criticism that Russian investments had something to do with money laundering: "When, during the sanctions (1992-1995), most of your money moved to Russia, we did not say that it is dirty or black money obtained during the war”. None of the Montenegrin officials answered that.
The crisis in KAP was resolved in 2009 with a Settlement Agreement whereby the Government gave the foreign owner subsidies for electricity and guarantees for a loan of 135 million euros, which was eventually paid by the citizens of Montenegro. With the decision on the indebtedness of Montenegro, KAP was given another EUR 49,6 million in guarantees.
The state audit institution found that the guarantees were given without appropriate counter-guarantees, which is why the former Minister of Economy was arrested in April last year Branko Vujović and 11 civil servants. They were immediately released to defend themselves, and the president recently awarded Vujović with the Order of the Montenegrin Flag "for his contribution to the construction, development and affirmation of Montenegro, restoration of its statehood and significant achievements in various fields".
Deripaska later initiated three international arbitrations against Montenegro because of KAP and Rudnik, but he lost in them.
This did not prevent him from building a huge complex of villas on the coast in Montenegro.
Deripaska, through the company Overseas assets management, owns a 25.000-square-meter tourist complex on Cape Platamuni, which he bought in 2005 at the tender of the then Fund for the Reform of the Defense System of Serbia and Montenegro for 627.000 euros, or only 18 euros per square meter of land on the coast. After that, he acquired another hectare from Morski Dobr.
A square of land, according to data from the websites of real estate agencies, in this area ranges from 50 to 300 euros.
It is a luxurious summer house with two connected palaces of 1.600 square meters covered with marble, while the other nine villas have from 100 to 300 square meters. Inside the complex there are also swimming pools, catering establishments, and guests can also go down a narrow path to the sea. The luxury complex is surrounded by a five-meter high stone wall, access is strictly prohibited to anyone who is not a guest of the complex.
The company KPM limited, which the media associated with Deripaska, bought from the Municipality of Kotor in 2004 the land in the hinterland of the beaches of Trsteno and Ploče, all the way to Platamun, which were recently declared a protected area.
The municipality of Kotor, responding to the request for free access to information, stated that it does not have a contract with Deripaska's company.
According to media reports, the land complex of 483.488 square meters was sold for a price of 4.399.740 euros, or only nine euros per square meter.
Deripaska, through his company Rasperia trading ltd, also owns 25,9 percent in Austrian Štrabag, which owns Crnagoraput.
Almost 200 million euros to investors
According to the data of the Investment Agency (MIA), since the beginning of the implementation of the special investment program of special importance for the economic interest of Montenegro, 28.250.000 euros have been paid for the purpose of the procedure costs.
"The total amount of funds paid for the purpose of donation for less developed areas amounts to 12.600.000 euros, while a total of 53.500.000 was deposited in the escrow account for the same purpose," the Agency told CIN-CG.
They stated that a total of EUR 33.900.000 was paid to investors through the program, while a total of EUR 156.550.000 was deposited into the escrow account for that purpose.
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