Bulgaria revokes citizenship for Russian millionaire Adonev

By VESELIN TOSHKOV
January 28, 2019

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — A Bulgarian official says the Bulgarian citizenship of Russian millionaire Sergey Adonev has been revoked over a 20-year-old fraud conviction in the United States.

In an interview with the private bTV channel on Sunday, Bulgarian Vice President Iliana Yotova said she had signed the final document revoking Adonev’s citizenship in May 2018. According to Bulgarian law, her office has the final say about granting or revoking citizenship.

The revocation came just days before the expiry of the 10-year period during which it could be done. Bulgaria is a member of the 28-nation European Union, and its citizenship confers EU rights.

Yotova says she signed the document “following a thorough analysis by our security services.” Yotova said, as far as she knew, “authorities did not have such information back in 2008 when the citizenship was granted.”

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The Free Europe Bulgaria news service broke the story last week, just a day before the European Commission issued a warning against countries having “golden passports” schemes.

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