The magnetic power of passports. What documents attract Russian businessmen
The power of passports
Depending on the methodology, companies put different countries first in terms of passport strength in 2024.
Henley & Partners gives first place to France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and Spain. With their passports, you can visit 194 countries without a visa. Finland, the Netherlands, South Korea and Sweden are in second place. 193 countries. Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, and Great Britain are third. The US is in 6th place, the UAE is in 11th place, Cyprus is in 14th place, and Russia is in 52nd place.
The Passport Index places countries differently, with the UAE coming first with 179 countries. France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Austria and Switzerland share the second place. 177 countries do not require visas for these passports. Sweden, Belgium, Finland and Ireland took the third place. 176 countries. The US is also in 6th place, Cyprus is 9th, and Russia is 36th.
New passport
We do not strive for an exhaustive sample and take news about the change of citizenship by businessmen from open sources. Links to the materials used are provided at the end of the article.
Timur Turlov (Freedom Holding) received a passport of Kazakhstan and lives in Kazakhstan.
Ruben Vardanyan (Troika Dialog) received a passport of Armenia. Now in Azerbaijan.
Yuri Milner (DST Global) received a passport Israel.
Nikolay Storonsky (Revolut) received a passport Great Britain and lives in the UK.
Oleg Tinkov (Tinkoff Group) received a passport Cyprus. He lives in Italy.
Igor Makarov (Areti Group of Companies) received a passport Cyprus.
Ratmir Timashev (Veeam Software) received a passport Cyprus, lives in the US.
Andrey Baronov (Veeam Software) received a passport Cyprus, lives in Switzerland.
Mikhail Kokorich (Technosila) received a passport Switzerland and lives in the US.
Vasily Anisimov (private investor) received a passport Croatia, lives in Croatia.
Pavel Durov (Telegram) received a passport UAE and lives in the UAE.
It seems that in terms of the subjective price/quality ratio, Russian millionaires are most interested in passports for investments. In particular, an EU passport for investing €5m in the Cypriot economy seems to them to be a reasonable solution.
According to the Foreign Ministry, in 2022, 23.5 thousand people withdrew from Russian citizenship, and 13.6 thousand people became Russian citizens. From January to September 2023, about 4,400 people withdrew from Russian citizenship, and 15,000 people became Russian citizens.
- https://www.henleyglobal.com/passport-index/ranking
- https://www.passportindex.org/byRank.php
- https://www.forbes.ru/milliardery/483156-i-byl-takov-kto-iz-ucastnikov-spiska-forbes-otkazalsa-ot-rossijskogo-grazdanstva?image=481527
- https://www.kommersant.ru/doc/6453273?utm_source=yxnews&utm_medium=desktop&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fdzen.ru%2Fnews%2Fsearch%3Ftext%3D
- https://aif.ru/society/mid_rf_4_4_tys_chelovek_otkazalis_ot_rossiyskogo_grazhdanstva_v_2023_godu