Russian businessman Alex Pospehov, who helped to exploit regulatory loopholes to obtain residence permits, has been blacklisted in Latvia, reports TV3’s “Nekā personīga”.
Latvia is trying to attract promising companies to develop their innovative ideas in the country. Several hundred entrepreneurs, mostly from Russia, have responded to the invitation, but some of them have not been seen in Latvia since obtaining their residence permits. The person who helped these Russian citizens to deceive the Latvian authorities has been blacklisted this year.
In 2016, Latvia set out to become the most appealing country in the Baltics for start-ups. The government decided to offer more support to local business ideas and launched measures to attract innovative companies from other countries. One of the promised bonuses was a temporary residence permit in Latvia.
Then Pospehov, who is positioned as an entrepreneur and strategic communication expert, arrived in Latvia and was one of the first to receive a startup visa in 2018. Pospehov has founded several companies in Latvia, with Mission Tech, which was registered in 2019, focusing on consultancy. A month after the company was founded, Pospehov has already publicly said that he helped 21 other start-ups to obtain so-called start-up visas.
Pospehov has been telling Russian crypto and startup blogs how easy it is to get a residence permit in Latvia.
It has been presented as the easiest way to move to Europe and the US. He has helped his clients to set up companies in Latvia, to get their business ideas off the ground and to apply for a temporary residence permit that would allow them to travel freely across Europe. The recipients of the residence permit in Latvia needed a declared address, and many of them gave it in Pospehov’s apartment on Ģertrūdes Street.
To keep their permit, the rules required these Russian nationals to prove that their business was genuine – to be on the board of a company, to show progress in product development. The Citizenship and Migration Board relied on the opinions of the Latvian Investment and Development Agency (LIAA), but the LIAA only assessed the idea on paper, according to the programme. The highest number of applications – 295 – was in 2021, but many were also refused, while in 2022 the programme was discontinued for Russian citizens.
292 Russian nationals and their family members have received residence permits through the start-up programme. Most of the startups declared in Pospehov’s apartment registered their startups in a building in Riga, Ganību dambis 26A, where the companies never had offices. According to the programme, the building belongs to the company “Valmieras 28”, which is owned by Viktor Chaikin and the firm of politician Yulia Stepanenko, and whose board of directors includes former MP and Riga City Council member Vyacheslav Stepanenko.
Pospehov was blacklisted in Latvia this spring because security authorities believe he has endangered Latvia and the European Union by helping people who lied about their purpose to enter the country. Pospehov has now reportedly moved to Luxembourg and is telling Russian media about the benefits for startups in Luxembourg and how to get a Luxembourg passport. The Admissions Registry of Pospehov’s client firms that received a startup visa has closed en masse this summer. Many also had their startup residence permits cancelled, but 41 Russian citizens still have them.