Salikhova Zarema, the wife of Russian oligarch Leonid Fedun, obtained Cyprus nationality back in 2018 under scandalous express procedures, Philenews reported on Tuesday.
According to leaked documents and e-mails, the controversial oligarch’s wife received the Mediterranean island’s citizenship on the basis of a real estate investment – a home intended to be her permanent residence.
Her application for naturalization was approved in August 2018, ten months after submission of the application, but her € 2,000,000 luxury apartment in coastal Limassol has yet to be delivered.
In fact, the construction company itself, which according to its documents sold the property, advertised in April that works were still in progress and that they had not been completed. In other words, four years after the naturalization, Zarema has not received the property that was the reason her application had been approved.
In October 2020, Cyprus scrapped its long-running controversial citizenship by investment program.
This happened after new allegations that a veteran lawmaker and a state official didn’t follow the strict vetting process. The allegations implicated that they issued a passport to a fictitious investor with a supposed criminal record.
The government said at the time that the decision was built upon the “long-standing weakness, but also abuse” of the provisions of the Cyprus Investment Program.
