THE British Government announced today that it is suspending, with immediate effect and for security reasons, its program “Golden visa” which he granted to the wealthy investorsat a time when the London tries to show determination towards the Russian oligarchs, in the middle of it Ukrainian crisis.
The goal is to fight “illegal funding”, Foreign Minister Liz Trass said in a Twitter post. “Such malicious activities, especially as we are seeing from the Russian side at the moment, have no place in the United Kingdom,” he added.
This program was launched in 2008. “Golden visas” were given to investors who had at least 2 million pounds (about 2.4 million euros) and wanted to settle in United Kingdom. However, in some cases, “security concerns” were expressed, especially when it came to people who were “illegally enriched” and linked to corruption cases, the interior ministry said in a statement.
Minister Priti Patel said she wanted to “block the corrupt elites who threaten national security”.
The cessation of the issuance of this “golden visa” concerns all nationalities, but all eyes are on Russia. The British government had been accused of “submissiveness” to Russian money of dubious origin and Russian investors flooding some expensive London neighborhoods, which acquired the derogatory nickname “Landograd”.
Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned that Russian companies would have difficulty accessing British markets. He also criticized Europe’s dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, calling for an end to “Vladimir Putin’s blackmail”.
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