ATHENS – Agreeing to toughened European Union sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Greece has suspended issuance of Golden Visas to wealthy Russian investors.

Those come with EU passports for foreigners wealthy enough to invest in at least 250,000 euros ($280,215) in property, the lowest threshold across the bloc to qualify, Greece eagerly seeking cash after dealing with a near decade-long economic and austerity crisis.

In January, the Ministry of Migration and Asylum said that since the program began in 2013 that 9,473 main applicants given the visas as well as 28,411 of their family members, said the site Get Golden Visa.

The overwhelming majority of the main applicants and dependents – 6,267 = were from China, with 605 Turks next and then 576 Russians, with Greece and Russia also having historically close ties.

The New Democracy government has been seeking more foreign investors to accelerate a slow recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that now has entered a third year, seeing cases falling.