7 hours ago19,000 properties threatened with blockades: Montenegro freezes Russian property?
Periskopi(4 years ago)
(4 years ago)Montenegro will immediately join the new package of EU sanctions against Russia, which refers to the suspension of business in the real estate sector with Russian citizens, writes Pobjeda. The paper notes that in Montenegro, Russians own or are co-owners in 19,000 properties and almost four million [...]
The paper notes that in Montenegro, Russians own or are co-owners in 19,000 properties and almost four million square metres of land.
Most of these real estates -- 98 percent -- are in coastal municipalities, and mostly in Budva and Tivar, according to the Podgorica newspaper.
According to Bloomberg, whose journalists had a mirror of the European Commission document, the ban on doing business in the real estate sector will not apply to Russians who have citizenship or residence, or residence permits in the European Union and Switzerland.
The European Commission's legislative proposal will ban property transactions with Russian citizens, residents and subjects by preventing sale or transfer, directly or indirectly, “property rights” to real estate located on the territory of the Union or shares in the company and investment funds in the screen. Russian-owned real estate”
The total value of Russian real estate in Montenegro is unknown, or whether it is linked to oligarchs near Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose assets are being raised due to the invasion of Ukraine, in line with EU, US and Great Britain sanctions.
In the first nine months of 2021 alone, Russian citizens invested almost 13m euros in real estate on the Montenegrin coast, according to Central Bank data.
While major Russian banks were excluded from SW programme The IFT, which blocked payments from and Russian accounts, nearly a quarter of Russians planning to sell their property in Montenegro gave up because they had a problem where they were getting the money.
Instead of selling, Russians are now buying real estate in Montenegro, the paper writes, citing that part of the so-called middle class is leaving Russia under sanctions, and some are interested in settling permanently or temporarily in Montenegro.
The condition for giving permission to stay, under the Law for Foreigners, is employment or ownership of real estate in Montenegro, which allows them to open bank accounts in Montenegrin banks.
The wealthy Russians mostly own real estate in luxurious residential complexes such as Porto Montenegro, Zavala, Portonovo or Lucica Bay. The Russians were also the main beneficiaries of economic citizenship if they invested 250 thousand euros in real estate in the north and 450 thousand euros on the coast.
By the end of 2020 until mid-February of this year, when distrust was voted upon, Zdravko Krikapiqi's government granted a total of 315 honourary citizenship, out of which 291 economics.
Whether there are persons among them on the EU, US and United Kingdom blacklist is unknown.
Of the most prominent Russians, real estate in Montenegro is owned by businessmen Oleg Deripaska and Andrej Malevski, and Moscow prosecutor Denis Popov writes “Pobjeda”.
