FUGITIVE OLIGARCH ILAN SHOR AND MP MARINA TAUBER HAVE BEEN GRANTED RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP

Fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor, convicted in Moldova for financial crimes for 15 years in prison, has received Russian citizenship. He announced this on the air of russian.rt.com.

He said that he "filed documents and today "I am citizen, including of the Russian Federation." He is also a holder of citizenship of Israel (by place of birth) and of Moldova.

Shor fled Moldova in June 2019, prior to the court's verdict against him. He went into hiding in Israel for almost five years, and since February 2024, he moved to Russia. For this purpose, the Russian authorities lifted the restrictions on entry to the country that had previously been imposed on Shor, after which they granted him Russian citizenship.

Positioning himself as a politician, he recently created the political bloc "Victory", which advocates Moldova's accession to the EAEU, as well as "strategic partnership with Russia". The bloc includes the Shor party, which is banned in Moldova, and the Chance and Renaissance parties, formed, among others, by defector MPs from the Party of Socialists.

According to some sources, his closest associate, the vice-chair of the "Shor" party (which has been declared unconstitutional), MP Marina Tauber, was granted Russian citizenship at the same time as Shor. During a recent trip to Moscow, she was also awarded the Order of Friendship. The award was presented to her by State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin.