Cyprus has frozen more than €3 million in assets belonging to the former governor of the Chelyabinsk Region of the Russian Federation
Cypriot law enforcement authorities have frozen assets belonging to Mikhail Yurevich, the former governor of Russia’s Chelyabinsk Oblast, estimated to be worth 3,157,000 euros. In Russia, Putin’s inner circle seized his businesses and issued an international arrest warrant on charges of bribery, while in Cyprus, Yurevich is suspected of illegally obtaining a so-called “golden passport.”
According to en.philenews, the freezing of the Russian’s assets became known after the Nicosia District Court issued a ruling, as law enforcement was unable to locate the individual to serve the court order. Requests to freeze the assets were filed by the Cyprus Anti-Money Laundering Unit (CAMLU).
The frozen assets include two properties on the island. The first property is a luxury apartment in the ONE residential complex in Mesa Geitonia, valued at two million six hundred twenty thousand euros, registered directly in the name of the former Russian official. The second property is an apartment in the Park Residence complex in Germasogeia, valued at 555,000 euros, which is officially owned by the father of former Governor Valery Yurevich.
Mikhail Yurevich previously served as a deputy in the Russian State Duma and headed the Chelyabinsk region from 2010 to 2014. In May 2017, he was placed on an international wanted list on charges of accepting bribes from local officials and business representatives, as well as for defamation. According to investigators, while in public office, he received over three billion rubles through intermediaries, equivalent to approximately thirty-five million euros. In January 2020, he was found guilty of large-scale bribery.
In addition to his political activities, Yurevich controlled the large agro-industrial group Makfa, one of the largest producers of pasta and flour in the Russian Federation. However, in 2024, the company was fully nationalized following a lawsuit filed by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office. The basis for the court’s decision was the corrupt origin of the assets, as the beneficiary continued to engage in covert business activities while holding high-level government positions, disregarding established anti-corruption restrictions.
The case of the former Russian politician gained widespread attention in August 2020 thanks to an Al Jazeera investigation titled “The Cyprus Papers,” which exposed large-scale abuses of the local investment program. Yurevich became a citizen of Cyprus in 2016. At the same time, a special investigative commission led by Miron Nikolatos established that the man had not visited the republic at all since 2001. This means that he managed to obtain a European passport without ever setting foot on the island.
The investigative commission’s final report dated June 7, 2021, which analyzed the most questionable cases of naturalization of foreigners, notes that according to the official register of arrivals and departures, Mykhailo Yurevich had not crossed the Cypriot border for many years. Furthermore, of the five applications submitted on behalf of Yurevich’s family members for citizenship, a genuine personal signature was found only on the document of his partner, Kristina Yurevich. Given the gross violations uncovered, the commission recommended that the Cypriot government officially revoke the passport of the former Russian official.
As a reminder, Yurevich’s “Makfa,” the largest pasta manufacturer, came under the control of a “pocket bank” owned by the son of Putin’s closest ally, Patrushev.
