Malta has suspended with immediate effect all Russians and Belarusians from its two expat passport schemes, the Malta Permanent Residence Program and Maltese Citizenship By Investment Program.
The move follows the halting of new visas to Russians by Portugal and Greece earlier this week, and a joint overarching statement by the European Parliament, the UK, Canada and US "committing to taking measures to limit the sale of citizenship".
The UK also scrapped its Tier 1 Investor Visa, with reaction across the industry.
In a statement on 2 March, the island's parliamentary secretariat for citizenship and communities said the Community Malta Agency, Identity Malta Agency and Residency Malta Agency had been closely monitoring the situation in Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.
"It is to be noted that following thorough checks, no beneficiaries of any status, related to the grant of citizenship or residence, are on the EU Sanctions List.
"Similarly, no applications from individuals on the EU Sanctions List are currently in process.
"The ongoing due diligence process ensures flagging of individuals who feature on sanctions lists from time to time.
In such cases, the agencies shall apply all the processes provided by law to revoke any status granted to them."
The statement continued: "As a result of recent developments, the existent due diligence checks cannot be carried out effectively in the current scenario. Consequently, Community Malta Agency and Residency Malta Agency have suspended, until further notice, the processing of applications for the above-mentioned statuses from nationals of the Russian Federation and Belarus.
"Notwithstanding the fact that no beneficiaries of any citizenship or residence status are on the EU Sanctions List, renewals of status of beneficiaries will be processed on a case-by-case basis in accordance with the existing standard procedures. These entail fresh compliance checks to ensure beneficiaries continue to remain eligible.
According to a report in yesterday's Times of Malta, its suspension of Russians and Belarusians from its cash-for-passports scheme was a "dramatic change of stance".
