Oleg Firer, Grenada’s former Ambassador to Russia, has been removed from the list of overseas marketing agents authorized to do business on behalf of the island’s Citizenship by Investment Programme.
“The Grenada Citizenship by Investment Committee advises that Oleg Firer is not a licensed Marketing Agent, nor a registered sub-agent of the Grenada Citizenship by Investment Programme,” according to a note on the program’s newly updated website.
“As a result, he is not authorized to market, promote, or disseminate information about the program, nor to act on behalf of, or engage with, current or potential applicants, or their authorized representatives,” according to the March 28 Notice.
According to the CBI website, the CBI program now has 59 worldwide marketing agents. When he became a marketing agent is unknown.
However, on April 6, 2017, Firer presented copies of his credentials to the Russian Federation’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Ryabkov, and became Grenada’s first Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Russian Federation. On October 3, 2017, Firer handed his credentials to Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin.
On February 22, 2022, he was denied admission into Grenada and his diplomatic passport was confiscated by immigration officials. Cajeton Hood, his lawyer, stated that immigration officers gave him no reason.
Grenada’s government changed on June 23, 2022, and the new government, led by lawyer Dickon Mitchell, quickly recalled all diplomats appointed by the previous administration of Prime Minister Dr Keith Mitchell.
The island ceased accepting applicants to the programs from Russia and Belarus on April 1 of this year.
These two countries have joined North Korea, Iran, and Palestine as countries barred from participating in Grenada’s CBI program.
Grenada agreed to cease accepting applications as part of its decision to comply with a request from the US following the historic US-Caribbean Roundtable on Citizenship by Investment held in St Kitts-Nevis on February 25.
At that meeting, the participating countries agreed on six principles for moving forward, including suspending applications from Russia and Belarus to the CBI program and refusing to process applications from people whose applications have been denied in another CBI jurisdiction by proactively sharing denial information.