Prague, Sept 18 (CTK) – Not only Russians, but also an increasing number of Azeris are buying luxury property for tens of million crowns in Prague which they consider a safe haven for their money, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD) writes Friday.
“There are lots of beautiful places including spas and hotels in the Czech Republic,” President Milos Zeman told his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev during his visit to Azerbaijan this week, MfD writes.
“If you invest your money in the Czech Republic, you will be certain not to lose it,” he added.
Zeman’s visit was primarily motivated to encourage Czech-Azeri business.
Zeman has unwittingly described the main reason of why rich Azeris are buying property in the Czech Republic, MfD writes.
“For them, this is both an investment and certainty that they will have a place to go if the political situation in the country changes,” a lawyer who has acted as a broker for a number of real estate investments for clients from Azerbaijan is quoted as saying.
Due to the delicate nature of the deals, he requested anonymity, MfD writes.
Azeri money has been flowing en masse to the Czech Republic for some time already, it adds.
Powerful and influential people from the former Soviet republic have taken liking to the luxury Prague flats, MfD writes, citing some examples of this.
In June 2011, Durya Nuriyeva, 57, bought a three-room suite measuring 116 square metres at the Rohanske embankment in Prague.
She paid 7.4 million crowns for the fifth-floor flat. As she took out no mortgage and sent the sum to the developer’s account within 60 days, she immediately joined the high society there, MfD writes.
Flats in the U-shaped River Diamond building on the Vltava bank are owned by former Vasily Kuzubov, former deputy governor of the Krasnoyarsk province, the second largest Russian region, and former Czech national ice-hockey team coach Alois Hadamczik, it adds.
The name Nuriyev is one of the best known in Azerbaijan. Eldar Nuriyev is head of the State Control of Presidential Aliyev. Nuriyev has been serving in top posts in Azerbaijan since 1979, MfD writes.
However, it is impossible to check whether there is any relationship between Durya Nuriyeva and Eldar Nuriyev, it adds.
The number of Azeris buying property in Prague is much smaller than that of the Russians, but one can still track down their investments in most new housing projects in Prague.
Unlike the Russians who often buy the property through a domestic firm established solely for this purpose, Azeris mostly buy the new property directly, MfD writes.
This is the case of Jamil Malikov who has bought a flat worth 3.3 crowns in the Central Park housing complex, inspired by Manhattan’s skyscrapers, it adds.
Malikov’s name cannot be found in Czech registers, but back in Azerbaijan, a certain Jamil Malikov chairs the State Agency for Alternative and Renewable Sources, MfD writes.
