Cyprus MP Alexandra Attalides continues to raise the issue of the scale of the crisis caused by the mass influx of Russian citizens into the country and the accelerated granting of citizenship and residence permits to them.
Companies and structures created and controlled by Russian citizens have been granted the right to bring into the country, without any controls, a virtually unlimited number of citizens of third countries that are not members of the EU, presenting them as «highly qualified specialists» or «talents,» many of whom are not. The vast majority of them are Russian citizens, which should have alerted the authorities. But it seems that only Alexandra Attalides truly understands the threats Cyprus faces from the influx of citizens of a country waging a hybrid war against the West and an aggressive war in the heart of Europe.
A group of Russian businessmen with Cypriot passports, led by Alexei Gubarev, plays a special role in these processes. The latter has a reputation as a person associated with the Russian special services and Kremlin oligarchs. It was he and his entourage who drafted amendments to the citizenship law that allowed them to bring thousands of Russians to Cyprus and distribute Cypriot passports to them at their discretion, thereby creating a parallel state within a state for themselves.
The prototype of this state was the Techisland association, founded by Gubarev, which operates under a strict hierarchy and chain of command in the spirit of Russian corporate practices.
The sources of funding for the companies belonging to Techisland are directly linked to the oligarch Abramovich, Gazprom, and VTB Bank. Let us remind you that all of them are under sanctions. But this does not seem to bother the association and its creators in any way. Funding disguised as investments from venture capital funds goes through structures registered in Cyprus, which are also part of Techisland. This is how the closed ecosystem that Gubarev likes to talk about publicly is structured. Only the funding for this ecosystem comes from outside, from Moscow.
Why the authorities allow all this remains a mystery. With the help of loyal deputies, who turned out to be unexpectedly numerous, Gubarev easily pushed the amendments he needed through parliament and is now handing out Cypriot passports en masse to his loyal supporters.
We have already written about this in the article «From ‘golden passports’ to Russian talent: how Cyprus is becoming Moscow’s colony in the EU.»
But the problem does not end there. According to data presented to parliament by Interior Minister Constantinos Ioannou, between January 1, 2023, and August 26, 2024, the Cypriot authorities issued more than 48,000 temporary residence permits to employees of foreign companies and their family members.
The minister provided this data in response to a parliamentary question from Nicosia MP Alexandra Attalides, showing that the government issued 48,212 permits during this period.
The permits were distributed as follows: 20,997 to employees of foreign companies, 25,053 to family members under family reunification programs, and 2,162 to family members classified as dependent visitors, including parents, partners, and children.
According to the ministry, most of the permits were issued to Russian citizens — 33,517. They are followed by citizens of Ukraine — 3,504 permits, and Belarus — 2,713.
Israel received 1,957 permits, India 1,230, and Lebanon 1,193. Kazakhstan received 336 permits, the United Kingdom 322, the United States 254, and China 241. The remaining 2,945 permits were distributed among other countries.
The data covers temporary residence and work permits, as well as permits for family reunification and visiting relatives.
It is unknown how many Russians received a residence permit before and after this period. The minister did not disclose how many Russian citizens received residence permits privately, without being employees of foreign companies, or have permanent resident status.
The current number of Russians with various residence statuses, including temporary and permanent, is not known for certain. However, it can be safely assumed that there are well over 40,000.
They are a diverse group, but one thing is clear: most are loyal to Russia and support the Kremlin’s policies. This is due to the specific nature of Russian emigration: there are no refugees or economic migrants among them; people with money come to Cyprus. And in Putin’s Russia, big money can only be made by being close to power and state financial flows. There are exceptions, but they are extremely rare. In addition, among Russians living in Cyprus there is an abnormally high concentration of current or former employees of the Russian special services, as well as people associated with them or willing to cooperate with them.
After the invasion of Ukraine and the mobilization of 2022, a new wave of Russian migrants flooded into the West. Thousands of Russian citizens settled in Cyprus. And, as always in such cases, the Russian special services used the flow of people fleeing the country to send hundreds, if not thousands, of their personnel and agents to the West under the guise of refugees. Many wondered at the time why Putin did not close the borders and allow millions of potential soldiers to flee the country. The answer to this question was provided by Western special services, which recorded numerous cases of SVR and GRU agents infiltrating the West under the guise of refugees from Russia.
The same mechanism is used to «relocate» IT specialists: under the guise of programmers and engineers, personnel and agents of the Russian special services enter Cyprus. Yes, they are indeed «highly qualified specialists» — but in espionage and sabotage.
It is worth noting that the Soviet/Russian special services never missed an opportunity to send their employees and agents along with the waves of migration from the Soviet Union/Russia.
This gives rise to another threat that few people think about. Cyprus will soon join the Schengen area. This means that tens of thousands of Russians concentrated on the island with their connections in the Kremlin, in the special services, and stolen capital will rush into Europe. Along with them, Russian intelligence officers and agents who have settled on the island will also gain free access to the EU. This will inevitably lead to an increase in espionage and sabotage activities by Russian intelligence services in the Europe.
It is becoming increasingly difficult for Russian citizens to obtain a Schengen visa, and this is a serious barrier for Moscow, limiting the intelligence and sabotage activities of its special services in EU countries. However, after Cyprus joins the Schengen Agreement, new and much broader opportunities will open up for the Russian special services. The island will become the main channel for Russian agents to infiltrate Europe. And the key instrument in this process, as is already evident, will be the system built by Alexei Gubarev.
Iosif Bronstein, exclusively for Cyprus Daily News
Read more on the topic:
- Gubarev’s importation: Putin’s IT guys take over Cyprus
- Russian Capital and Technology: How Putin’s Oligarchs Penetrate European Business Through Cyprus
- A journalist is on trial in Cyprus for an article he did not write
- Alexei Gubarev, a Cypriot and Lithuanian citizen, supports the Putin regime by funding Kremlin propaganda
- “Golden Flight” of a Russian Cypriot: Alexey Gubarev’s Corrupt Schemes in Kyrgyzstan
- Cyprus justice with a Russian accent
- From ‘golden passports’ to Russian talent: how Cyprus is becoming Moscow’s colony in the EU