Filenews 3 May 2022
By Jemima McEvoy
Igor Bukhman and his brother, Dmitri, were born and raised in the city of Vologda, Russia. There they also founded Playrix, a mobile game developer, which was destined to become one of the top in the world and soar the value of Bukhman to $16.2 billion. dollars. Ten years ago, when the war in Ukraine was not on the horizon, the two brothers began to feel insecure at home. Their dispute with the police over the purchase of a piece of land – in which they were deceived – brought them to their limits and a short time later they decided to leave Russia.
Fortunately for Bukhman, the way out was "paved". Because of their Jewish ancestry, the two brothers could obtain Israeli citizenship through the "Law of Return" of the State of Israel. "It's a fairly simple process, as long as you can prove your Jewish roots," Ιgor said. "Since both my parents are Jewish, my case was very easy." The Bukhman gathered their belongings and moved to Israel in 2016, while in 2020 they settled in London.
Other Russian-born billionaires also benefited from the "Law of Return", also known as "Aliyah", which automatically gives the right to remain in the country and obtain Israeli citizenship to any Jew or anyone who can prove that at least one of his grandparents was a Jew. Yuri Milner, one of the first to invest in Facebook and Twitter and with a personal fortune of up to $7.3 billion, is one of the first to invest in Facebook and Twitter. under the same law, he acquired Israeli citizenship in 1999, as stated by his spokesman, Leonid Solovyev. Born to a Ukrainian-Jewish father and a Russian-Jewish mother, the "main reason" why Milner wanted the Israeli passport was his "Jewish ancestry and strong personal connection to Jewish culture," Solovyev pointed out. He moved with his family to Israel in 2005 and his first two daughters were born there. Today, Milner is established in the Gulf of San Francisco.
According to Forbes' survey, over 40% of the 111 billionaires of Russian descent have at least one more passport (6% have two more and/or more). About half of Russia's 35 tycoons – sanctioned – have dual citizenship. After the Cypriot passport (15 Russian billionaires took advantage of the now abolished "golden visa" program that required an investment of at least €2 million, the Israeli passport is the most popular among the ranks of Russian oligarchs (11), while five Russian billionaires have British citizenship and 3 are Maltese citizens.
The war in Ukraine has turned the focus on the Israeli citizenship program. Three of the most prominent Russian oligarchs who have been sanctioned are also Israeli citizens: the co-founders of Alfa Bank, Mikhail Fridman and German Khan, and Roman Abramovich. The latter, owner of the English football club Chelsea, is the best known of the three. He became rich thanks to the large percentage of his shares in the oil giant Sibneft, which he sold in 2005 to the Russian state-owned company Gazprom for €13.1 billion. Dollars. Abramovich, who acquired Israeli citizenship in 2018, was seen in the VIP hall at Israel's international airport in March, just days after British sanctions were imposed against him (sanctions have also been imposed on him by the EU, Canada, Australia and Switzerland). Israel has maintained a largely neutral stance against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, although it is hosting thousands of Ukrainian refugees.
But it is not only the billionaires who are turning to Israel. The country attracts a wide range of the richest inhabitants of Russia. Israeli lawyer Eli Gervits, who specializes in the "Law of Return," told Forbes that cases arriving in his office have increased 25fold compared to the period before the Russian invasion. "It is much more than in the period after Russia's annexation of Crimea," he noted. "Almost everyone who approaches us is not from Ukraine," Gervits said. "Nor is it generally from Russia. He is from Moscow," he underlined.
"I think Russian businessmen will have a very difficult time in the next two years," agreed David Angel, whose law firm in Tel Aviv helps people from all over the world immigrate to Israel. "Of course, those who are Jews and want to settle in Israel are in an advantageous position." Angel pointed out that the number of his clients has skyrocketed by 500% since the start of the war.
Mikhail Prokhrov, a nickel mining mogul and by 2019 owner of the Brooklyn Nets basketball team, is keen to get an Israeli passport. Prokhorov reportedly arrived in Israel in April on a private jet and applied for Israeli citizenship through the "Law of Return," according to Israeli news website Ynet. Prokhorov and the Israeli government did not respond to repeated requests from Forbes for comment. (Prokhorov is not among the oligarchs sanctioned).
Recently, Israeli citizenship has attracted more people after it has become difficult to obtain a passport from other Western countries. For years, the rich and the well-networked could – in fact – buy European citizenship through the so-called 'golden visa' programmes, which offered this privilege to anyone who was prepared to invest a certain amount. Since the start of the Russian invasion, three states have abolished these passports under pressure from the Commission. In particular, Bulgaria's parliament voted to end this programme, which required someone to invest at least €500,000 in the country to get a European passport. Malta abolished the "golden visa" (which required a minimum investment of €750,000) for Russians and Belarusians and is reportedly considering abolishing it altogether. Cyprus revoked the passports of 8 Russian oligarchs, as well as their dependents.
Unlike other passports -- which may take years to issue -- the process of securing Israeli citizenship takes from a few weeks to a few months, although Gervits says that this schedule fluctuates due to the war in Ukraine. As soon as the applicant proves his Jewish origin to the Israeli Ministry of Interior, he is immediately given a visa. The passport is handed over to the person in question, as soon as he manages to go to Israel (if he has a private jet, he can expedite his transition). It is worth noting that the country does not reject requests on political grounds. The only cases that can deny entry to someone who makes use of the "Law of Return" are if they have a criminal record, a contagious disease or is related to terrorism cases.
"The law does not prohibit oligarchs of Jewish descent from acquiring Israeli citizenship," explains Gervits, stressing that the "Law of Return" was enacted more than 70 years ago, after the Holocaust. "No one had in mind then the oligarchs or the war between Russia and Ukraine."
In addition to the passport, Israeli citizenship is accompanied by other privileges. Post-settlers in Israel are exempt for 10 years from paying tax on income earned abroad. Moreover, Israel has no legislation on sanctions, so it is not legally bound to implement the sanctions imposed by other countries. However, Israeli leaders have stressed that their country will not be used as a refuge for oligarchs in order to avoid sanctions and furthermore that it has a special working group to "deal with the effects of sanctions". "Israeli citizenship is not a way to escape sanctions," Gervits clarifies.
Other countries, such as Spain and Austria, have similar procedures for people of Jewish descent. Portugal's legislation, since 2015, gives the right to the descendants of Sephardic Jews, who were expelled from the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, to apply for Portuguese citizenship. Making use of this law, Abramovich added another European passport in his possession in April 2021. However, doubts about Abramovich's Sephardic ties (Abramovich is a common surname for Ashkenazis, and not sephardic) caused a storm of reactions in Portugal, which led to a government internal investigation into the Russian oligarch's request, the arrest of the rabbi that "facilitated" the naturalization of Abramovich, and the change in the law under which he acquired Portuguese citizenship. The porto municipal authority, in the Jewish community headed by Abramovich's rabbi, announced that it is suspending its cooperation with the central state to certify naturalization requests.
"Roman Abramovich destroyed our work," says Michael Decker, an expert in Israeli immigration law at Decker Pex Ofir & Co. "Because of him, all cases about Portuguese citizenship were frozen. Because of it – as well as other oligarchs – the Israeli authorities are worried and trying to make the process of obtaining citizenship more difficult."
Decker said Israel is now pressuring applicants—who make use of the Law of Return—to prove that they will indeed be relocated to the country. However, this is difficult to prove.
The ability of Russian billionaires under sanctions to resort to countries such as Israel has provoked many reactions. While acknowledging that there are "legitimate reasons to want someone to have a second passport," Eka Rostomashavili from the anti-corruption organisation Transparency International argues that some of the billionaires who have been sanctioned for their connections to the Kremlin "have EU passports because they probably don't want to live in the chaos they themselves helped to create."
Even if the ringer tightens for the Russian oligarchs, "they are practically not in danger of being completely excluded from Israel," Decker points out. The Government of Israel may take some measures to make it more difficult to obtain a passport: e.g. to place greater emphasis on the requirement for residence in the country, but it will not reject people for their political connections or past. "Quite the opposite. For Jews around the world, who may find themselves in the midst of a political crisis, Israel can be a safe haven," Dekker explains. "It would be unconstitutional for Israel not to save a Jewish refugee. It is our obligation to do so."
Billionaires of Russian origin with Israeli citizenship
Roman Abramovich
Dmitri Bukhman
Igor Bukhman
Mikhail Fridman
Viatcheslav Kantor
German Khan
Alexander Mamut
Alexander Nesis
Yuri Milner
Yuri Shefler
Gavril Yushvaev
Source: Forbes
