Anton Imennov commented on possible reasons for annulment of Deripaska’s Cypriot passport

Revocation of Oleg Deripaska’s Cypriot citizenship has to do with his inclusion in a western sanctions list, as reported to Znak.com by Head of the International Practice and Private Client Services and Managing Partner of Moscow Office of Pen & Paper Attorneys at Law Anton Imennov.

‘The modern world rests on three whales: the first one is payment of taxes, the second is transparency of proceeds, i.e. clean history with regard to money laundering or funding of terrorism, and the third one is lack of sanctions-related risks. These three criteria — as announced by the Cypriot authorities last month — will be referred to in the process of citizenship revocation,’ Mr. Imennov says. 'The first two points are financial misconduct, but questions to Oleg Deripaska arose specifically with regard to the last point. Since April 6, 2019 he has been on the American SDN sanctions list. According to personally identifiable information provided by OFAC, Deripaska has two passports: a Russian one and a Cypriot one. It is clear that the Cypriot authorities want nothing to do with a sanctioned person, which is why his name is on that list along with 9 other Russians. And this is just the beginning.’

Earlier a Cypriot newspaper called Politis reported that Deripaska, his son and daughter were stripped of their citizenship.

In early November Cypriot authorities announced revocation of citizenship of 26 persons who obtained it through investment into the country. 9 Russians happened to be among them.

The fact of Deripaska’s citizenship became known in March 2018.