Baltic States – CIS, EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Markets and Companies, Russia

Delfi.lv said that Lomakin who owns football club Riga and its cooperation partner Paphos in Cyrus has not visited Latvia for a while already.

Representatives of the Interior Ministry confirmed that Lomakin is on the list of persona non grata, while Aleksands Pronins, the executive director of the football club, claims the opposit.

"No, he is not on the black list. He is an EU citizen and ha cannot be included in the list. He has a residence permit. Such talks are slander. I don't even want to comment on that," said Pronins in an interview with Delfi portal.

The portal reported that Lomakin started investments in the club five years ago, but in the past three years he transferred the money through the Cyprus Investment Program (CIP), thus, obtaining a citizenship in Cyprus.

CIP was established to attract investors, and as a result, in the time period between November 2017 and last September, about 2,500 people from 70 countries were granted citizenship, allowing them to reside in the EU without restrictions.

Pressured by the EU, Cyprus stepped up requirements for the CIP citizenship in order to reduce circulation of illegal funds. As of August this year, the government may strip investors who abused the CIP off the citizenship. The list of such investors, most probably, included also Lomakin.

Unofficial sources reported that at least three security institutions in Latvia have submitted unfavorable reports about Lomakin, and it is the reason he is included in the list.