Newsroom
A Cypriot court has dismissed an appeal by Russian businessman Vadim Moshkovich and his family, seeking to halt the revocation of their Cypriot passports. Moshkovich, a major landowner in Russia with business interests in Cyprus, had obtained citizenship in 2017 under the now-defunct "golden passport" scheme.
Moshkovich was sanctioned by the European Union in March 2022 for his alleged ties to actions undermining Ukraine’s sovereignty. As a result, the Cypriot government revoked his citizenship, along with that of his wife and three children, the following month. The family challenged the decision, but after reviewing the case, an independent committee upheld the revocation. The cabinet reaffirmed its stance in February 2024.
Seeking to delay the revocation while his appeal was pending, Moshkovich requested a court-ordered suspension of the decision. However, the court found no legal grounds to grant the request, meaning the revocation remains in effect as his case moves forward.
Moshkovich is not the only Russian oligarch to lose Cypriot citizenship. In 2022, Cyprus also revoked the passports of Mikhail Gutseriev, Alexander Ponomarenko, and Alexei Kuzmichev, along with their families, after they appeared on the EU sanctions list. The government’s move is part of a broader effort to address concerns over its citizenship-by-investment program, which granted passports to nearly 3,000 Russians before it was discontinued in 2020.
