Russia’s New Golden Visa Program Can Facilitate The Scaling Of Trade & Investment With India

It's imperative that entrepreneurial Indians seriously look into Russia’s new Golden Visa program that The Economic Times just brought to their attention. Not only do they each stand to economically benefit, to say nothing of opening up other exciting opportunities for themselves and their families, but they’d also be doing a patriotic duty by playing a unique role in supercharging the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership at this crucial moment in the global systemic transition to multipolarity.

One of India’s top media outlets, The Economic Times, published an interview with Russian immigration lawyer Timur Beslangurov on Sunday about Moscow’s new Golden Visa program. His firm is facilitating efforts to attract foreign investment into this sanctions-beleaguered country, particularly that from the Global South whose growth in recent years has driven the global economy. Beslangurov explained why this new program, the details of which can be read here, is especially appealing to Indians.

In brief, the threshold is comparatively low enough (between $215,000 for investment into social projects and up to $715,000 for investment into real estate in Moscow) to enable medium- to upper-class Indian investors to achieve residency for them and their family without actually living in Russia. Functionally speaking, this is a workaround for removing a lot of the red tape that still impedes foreign investments into the country, after which returns from passive investments can easily be repatriated.  

To be clear, the stated purpose is to encourage immigration to Russia, but it’s still important for Indian investors to be aware that they can also utilize this new program for the abovementioned purpose. In either case, the outcome is mutually beneficial for Russian-Indian relations since these decades-long special and privileged strategic partners are serious about scaling their trade and investment like both sides most recently discussed doing by a favor of five in December.

While any investment would represent a tangible step towards this end, especially that which meets the criteria of Russia’s new Golden Visa program and could lead to more Indian immigration to that Eurasian Great Power, there are two megaprojects whose involvement Indians might be most interested in. These are the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC) and Vladivostok-Chennai Maritime Corridor (VCMC) with their respective hubs in the Caspian port of Astrakhan and the Pacific one of Vladivostok.

It would therefore be most mutually beneficial for Indian investors to seriously consider opportunities in either of those two cities and/or their related logistics networks in order to supercharge those countries’ efforts to pioneer these two new Eurasian integration corridors. Bilateral trade across both is already expected to naturally increase as it is, so it thus follows that those who get in on this ahead of time can reap maximum benefits from this bonanza.

Building upon these strategic investment proposals, the growth of the Indian diaspora in both cities via more immigration there facilitated by Russia’s new Golden Visa program could create important anchor communities for further scaling bilateral trade and investment via their associated megaprojects. As a result, India would obtain competitive advantages along those transcontinental corridors that could in turn eventually imbue it with the level of Eurasian influence commensurate with its new global status.

It's therefore imperative that entrepreneurial Indians seriously look into Russia’s new Golden Visa program that The Economic Times just brought to their attention. Not only do they each stand to economically benefit, to say nothing of opening up other exciting opportunities for themselves and their families, but they’d also be doing a patriotic duty by playing a unique role in supercharging the Russian-Indian Strategic Partnership at this crucial moment in the global systemic transition to multipolarity.