They outsmarted the EU: the artist who threatened to "eat his passport" kept his home in Latvia

The songwriter and performer, Honored Artist of Russia, may have a second citizenship, which allowed him to keep an apartment in Latvia. This version was expressed by lawyer Alexander Benkhin, explaining why the musician has not yet been sanctioned.

According to him, the tightening of the screws against Russian stars by the country's authorities has really been observed since 2014, it was then that the first sanctions were introduced.

"As for Ukupnik, he may have Israeli citizenship. He could register housing as an Israeli, so he does not fall under the formal sanctions of Russian citizens, and it will be more difficult to legally authorize him as an Israeli," the lawyer told the Paragraph portal.

Thus, the artist could manage to solve all possible issues in advance.

"If a person has a citizenship other than Russian, he registered real estate, most likely as a citizen of another country. In our country, you can have several citizenships, but you need to notify the state about this. Thus, some stars could outwit the European Union. They're in Russia, they are creating and working here and have not expressed their position against our country," concluded Benkhin.

As EADaily reported, the Latvian apartment, which Ukupnik calls a second home, is located in the elite residential complex Marienbades Nams in Jurmala. The cost of housing in this complex varies from € 400 thousand to € 650 thousand for apartments with an area of 100-190 square meters. Prices depend on the square footage of the apartments and the repairs carried out in them, a total of 11-storey building is designed for 32 apartments. It was built in 2003 and is located in the "dune zone".

Moreover, in September 2022, Ukupnik said that he was not going to sell this apartment, because "everything is complicated."