Russian’s Maltese citizenship retracted after name listed on US sanctions list

Apr 1 2022

A naturalised Maltese person is set to have their citizenship retracted after the US added her to its sanctions list, saying she has ties to Russian intelligence services.

The US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday added 21 entities and 13 individuals to the sanctions list. They were described as operators in the Russian technology sector and that they helped Russia illicitly procure dual-use equipment and technology for its defence sector.

Following the invasion of Ukraine, these are just a few of the latest companies and people blacklisted by the West as it targets wealthy Russians with ties to Putin’s Kremlin. With three of the companies based in Malta, one of the 13 individuals is Evgeniya Vladimirovna Bernova.

She is listed as a Russian national who has Maltese citizenship. She is linked to Malberg Ltd, which is one of the companies on the sanctions list through her shareholding in Djeco Group Holding Ltd.

The US government has claimed that she is an associate of Moscow company OOO Serniya Engineering. The US said the company is at the heat of a procurement network engaged in proliferation activities at the direction of Russian Intelligence Services.

Serniya, the US says, operates through companies in several countries, among them the Malta-based Malberg. Malta’s Home Affairs Ministry did not name the person being stripped of their citizenship and did not specify how the person in question had become a Maltese citizen.

The ministry noted that Home Affairs Minister Byron Camilleri started the ‘deprivation process’ to strip the unnamed person of the citizenship in line with provisions in the Maltese Citizenship Act and subsidiary legislation.

Malta halted its cash-for-passports scheme for Russia and Belarus last month after stating that no person who features on the sanctions list was a Maltese citizen.

#MaltaDaily

NGO rescue ship asks for shelter of 106 migrants before Pope’s Malta visit

Apr 1 2022

Just a day before Pope Francis arrives in Malta for his visit, a humanitarian rescue ship revealed that it will be entering Maltese waters on Friday to seek shelter for 106 people rescued from Libyan waters.

The Sea-Eye Ship said that it will be appealing to Malta to take in the migrants who left Libya last Sunday. This comes as the Pope highlighted migration as the focus for the visit as he will visit the Hal Far migrant housing on Sunday.

“Perhaps an unequivocal appeal by the Pope to the Maltese government can make Malta, as the closest EU state, feel responsible for 106 people seeking protection,” Sea-Eye chairman Gordon Isler said.

The distress call was received on Wednesday afternoon, with the vessel finding a grey rubber boat with 74 people, including 22 children onboard, after several hours of sailing.

Fifteen had to be treated in the ship’s sick bay, with the migrants coming from Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, South Sudan and Syria. Along with 32 rescued people who were taken over by the Sea Eye 4 from the container ship Karin on Tuesday, 106 rescued people are now on board.

Another search was unsuccessful after a distress call came in on Wednesday. It was interrupted on Thursday morning because the coordinates of another boat with 145 people in distress were reported. Before the boat was reached, Alarm Phone had reported an illegal push-back by the Libyan Coast Guard.

“If the people hadn’t been rescued, it would have been very unlikely that they would have survived, because the weather has changed suddenly in the last few days.”

#MaltaDaily

Hunting portfolio to be retained by Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri

Apr 1 2022

The responsibility for hunting will be retained by Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri, despite appeals by conservationists for it to be given to the environment ministry.

Government sources confirmed to Times of Malta that Camilleri, who is himself a trapper and in favour of hunting, would be responsible for government policy on the practice in the new cabinet.

This will make Camilleri responsible for the government’s Wild Birds Regulation Unit, which oversees hunting in Malta. The government first transferred responsibility for hunting from the Ministry for the Environment to the Gozo Ministry in 2020.

Conservationists described this move as diabolical and as serving purely electoral interests. The transfer of responsibilities had meanwhile been welcomed by the hunting lobby, with Camilleri first given responsibility for the sector when he was a parliamentary secretary within the Environment Ministry during the Joseph Muscat administration.

With Gozo having a high proportion of hunters, they tipped the balance in favour of the yes vote when the electorate voted in a spring hunting referendum in 2015.

#MaltaDaily

Chris Rock shuts down audience member chanting ‘F*** Will Smith’ during show

Apr 1 2022

The main event at the Oscars was Will Smith slapping comedian and presenter Chris Rock in the face after the latter made a joke about his wife’s hair loss.

But of course you already know that given the iconic meme format which took the internet by storm. However, it seems as though all is well with the two stars after Rock defended Smith during a live show.

The comedian returned to the Wilbur in Boston on April 30th, breaking his silence on the incident. He said that he had written a whole show before the weekend and is still processing what happened at the Oscars.

‘At some point I’ll talk about it. It’ll be serious. It’ll be funny, but right now I’m going to tell some jokes’ he started. However, during a show on the 31st, an audience member shouted out ‘F*** Will Smith!’

Rock quickly shut down the remark, replying ‘No, no, no, no…’, signifying no bad blood between the two actors and a sense of respect and forgiveness.

This follows a public apology published by Will Smith after the Oscars, saying that he was wrong to hit Chris Rock and that violence ‘in all of its forms is poisonous and destructive.’

‘Jokes at my expense are part of the job but a joke about Jada’s medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally’ said Smith. He went on to say that he is a work in progress and that there is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness.

#MaltaDaily