Baltic States – CIS, Investments, Latvia, Legislation, Transport

Yuri Luzhkov.

The court chairperson's aide Ksenija Novikova informed LETA that the court has accepted Luzhkov's petition against the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs and will review it. However, Luzhkov's petition contesting his inclusion in list of personae non grata was not accepted.

As reported, this past February, Luzhkov's request for residence permit in Latvia was turned down. The decision was predictable, since he was previously blacklisted by Interior Minister Linda Murniece (Unity).

Luzhkov previously told the newspaper "Diena" that he has still not given up hope to receive a Latvian residence permit.

Luzhkov explained that the residence permit in Latvia is more beneficial to him than the residence permit in some other European country. There is almost no language barrier and the mentality of Latvian people is also understandable. In addition, the Latvian economy needs investments, and it is more interesting to carry out various projects in Latvia than in Central and Western Europe, said Luzhkov.

According to Luzhkov, Latvia itself has invited people to receive residence permits, to provide more investments and to contribute to the recovery of country's economy. However, the residence permit is not his goal in and of itself, said Luzhkov.

Luzhkov explained that the residence permit would allow him to carry out business projects and visit Latvia to research the state of the market.

When commenting on the decision of Latvian authorities to include him on country's list of personae non grata, Luzkovs defined this as a misunderstanding. "I still have not received this decision that gained such a wide publicity, and I am not sure that it is flawless from the legal point of view," added Luzhkov.

LETA also reported, the "TV3" investigative news show "Neka personiga" reported on January 16 that Luzhkov was considering moving to Latvia permanently. Shortly before the end of 2010, Luzhkov turned to Latvia with an application for a residence permit after investing LVL 200,000 into the share capital of Rietumu banka.

Murniece announced later that Luzhkov has been included in Latvia's list of personae non grata because he hates this country and always has had a hostile attitude towards Latvia.