In mid-July 2023, almost a year and a half after the recommendations of the European Commission following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ministry of Business and Made in Italy suspended the program of so-called “golden visas” in exchange for investments for citizens of Russia and Belarus.
He did so by giving a meager communication in the form of two asterisks on the institutional page of the “Investor Visa for Italy” program: “We communicate the suspension of the program for Russian and Belarusian citizens as per the provision of the President of the Committee of 14 July 2023 (the manager minister Maurizio Montemagno, ed) in compliance with Recommendation C (2022) 2028 of the European Union”.
This delay (July 14, 2023 versus March 28, 2022, date of the aforementioned Recommendation) meant that last year, i.e. the year of international sanctions (also) against the oligarchs and entrepreneurs considered close to the circle of Vladimir Putin or Aljaksandr Lukašėnka, the our country has issued to at least 32 Russian citizens a two-year “investor” visa against the 36 who had requested one, as confirmed by the data transmitted by the same ministry to Other economics.
In 2022, the Russians represented the first nationality among the investors awarded by the “Investor Visa for Italy” program, surpassing the Americans (12) and the British (12), and also another 23 wealthy originating from non-European Union countries combined (nationalities that the Italian government does not distinguish for “privacy” reasons). A paradox.
Last year also recorded the peak of “golden visas” since they were introduced into the Italian legal system through the 2017 Budget Law: 79 issued (out of 92 requested) for a total amount of 32.3 million EUR. The data transmitted by the Ministry to Other economics make it possible to take stock of a measure explicitly defined by the government in the “operating manual” as a “form of reward and incentive”: 131 visas were issued between 2018 (the first year of effective operation) and 2022 in exchange for a total investment of 66.7 million euros. Just over 500,000 euros each on average.
Divided as follows: 22 million euros in government bonds, 3.5 million in startups “innovative” companies and as many as 41.2 million in Italian companies in the form of risk capital (item that absorbs over 60%). On the other hand, nothing would have been invested for the benefit of philanthropic and public interest activities such as “culture, education, immigration management, scientific research, recovery of cultural and landscape assets”, even if provided for by law.
This “reward” guaranteed by the state to rich and wealthy foreigners – already strident in itself if one thinks of the brutalities inflicted on other foreigners considered to be “second class” – continued in 2022 for the benefit of Russian and Belarusian citizens despite the European Commission, through the mouth of the internal affairs manager Ylva Johansson, had already expressed deep concern and opposition at the end of March last year, that is one month after the start of the war.
And he had done so formally through a recommendation (the 2028, dated precisely 28 March 2022) which reserved very harsh words for “Residence programs for investors in the European Union” and for those golden “residence schemes” which allowed, even at a stroke of ” money laundering, tax evasion and corruption”, to move undisturbed in the Schengen area (think of what happens instead at the European borders against migrants who certainly cannot boast the title of rich investor, from Ventimiglia to Como, from Trieste to the Mediterranean, to the Aegean and so on).
Programs of this kind, wrote the Commission, “may have led and may still lead to privileged access to the territory and internal market of the European Union and to movement within the Schengen area of Russian or Belarusian citizens who are or will become subject to the sanctions of the EU” due to their relations with the Moscow or Minsk governments.
That’s why, given the difficulty of carrying out proper security checks and a thorough investigation due diligencethe Commission had invited the member countries, including Italy, to immediately suspend those programs for Russians and Belarusians, “without prejudice” of course the possibility of Russian and Belarusian citizens entering the European Union motivated by “humanitarian or international protection reasons” .
It is a pity that this did not happen at all and that Italy continued undaunted to sell the “golden visas” throughout 2022. Until the patch on July 14 of this year. However, it risks being worse than the hole: on the website of the “Investor Visa for Italy” program – which contains unmissable sections such as the “10 good reasons to invest in Italy” – there are still the old “FAQs and useful information” updated to September 2018. “Are there any restrictions on the nationality of visa applicants?” is the frequently asked question. Answer: “The Investor Visa for Italy program does not provide for any specific restriction in this sense”. Spokoynoy nochi: Good night.
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