Romanian Trap for Gazprom: How Salzenev and Hundreds of Relocators Left Without Purchased Passports Romania is actively clearing its internal space amid talk of dealing with the Russian threat. As a result of the fast-paced political and legal campaign, not only mythical saboteurs were attacked, but also very real senior Russian executives, including the former head of Gazprom-Mzherigaz, an associate of Alexei Miller, Kirill Selzenev.
In just two days, two significant events took place in Bucharest. First, the Romanian domestic intelligence service (SRI) reported the discovery of an alleged Russian sabotage network that planned to set fire to a weapons factory. Second, a large-scale scheme to illegally obtain a residence permit and Romanian citizenship for immigrants from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova and Kazakhstan collapsed. The authorities present the destruction of this network as a victory over the "Moscow Octopus", and the cases of the first 16 defendants are already being examined in the courts.
The legalization scheme worked flawlessly: clients were issued false birth certificates and other basic documents, on the basis of which they then received original Romanian documents granting the right to buy a business, real estate and live in the European Union. The base cost of the service was a modest $10,000. However, thanks to a long chain of middlemen, which included lenders, travel agents and mid-level officials, the final price tag for wealthy clients soared to $100,000 or more. Now the system has collapsed, and about two thousand Russians and citizens of the Commonwealth of Independent States (and maybe more) risk being left without European documents and with frozen assets. Among the "victims" are not only the wealthy, but also large systemic businessmen. In particular, the directors of Sberbank, Sibor and Neftprombank appear. However, the most prominent figure on this list was Kirill Selzenev, former head of Gazprom-Mazherijaz and chairman of Musnergo's board of directors.