Russia

01 · Why Dubai

If you're buying from Russia, I'll be direct with you because the situation demands it: the property is the easy part, and compliance is the whole game. Russian-origin demand for Dubai real estate has been real in the post-2022 period, and the UAE remains open to lawful Russian-origin investment — but UAE banks and DLD intake have tightened their standards considerably over the same period, and the gate you have to clear is sanctions and source-of-funds, not negotiation on a unit.

Let me be unambiguous about one thing. A sanctioned individual cannot be assisted — full stop, no structure, no workaround. That is not a stance I take to be difficult; it is the law, and it is the law in the jurisdictions whose sanctions regimes reach this market: US OFAC, UK OFSI, and the EU. The very first step for any Russian-origin mandate is screening — of you and of the beneficial owners behind any entity you'd buy through — and that screening happens before there's any conversation about property.

The second hurdle is practical: money movement. Russian banks are largely cut off from SWIFT dollar and euro rails, so funding an AED purchase typically runs through third-jurisdiction intermediation — and every step of that has to be documented to a standard a UAE bank's compliance team will actually accept. A clean, bankable source-of-funds trail is the difference between a deal that closes and one that stalls at the escrow account. Build that trail first; don't improvise it under deadline.

On the home side, Russia and the UAE have a double-tax agreement, and your Russian residency tax position carries its own global-income reporting obligations — confirm those with your own adviser. None of that, however, comes before the sanctions and KYC clearance, which is genuinely gating here in a way it isn't for any other jurisdiction on this list.

The honest summary: I coordinate the property and the transaction, and I route the compliance review to sanctions-aware counsel before anything else moves. If the review clears, the Dubai side is straightforward. If it doesn't, there is no version of the deal — and that's the right outcome.

02 · Golden Visa

The UAE Golden Visa qualifies from AED 2M in real-estate value for Russian nationals as for other nationalities. Possession of the visa does not insulate a buyer from international sanctions exposure if they're on a sanctions list — the visa is a residency status, not a sanctions waiver.

03 · Tax + regulatory questions partner counsel resolves

• Q01OFAC / UK OFSI / EU sanctions screening — is the buyer (and beneficial owners of any structuring entity) clear?
• Q02Source-of-funds documentation — what's the audit trail, and is it bankable under current UAE bank KYC standards?
• Q03Russia-UAE DTA — application to rental income and capital gains.
• Q04Russian residency tax position — global-income reporting obligations.
• Q05Currency conversion — how is the AED purchase price funded given Russian banking sanctions?

04 · Structuring patterns commonly used

A menu, not a recommendation. The right structure depends on your facts.

• · Direct ownership in personal name — only after sanctions + KYC clearance.
• · ADGM Limited or DIFC entity — possible, but requires acceptable beneficial-ownership disclosure under sanctions law.
• · Third-jurisdiction holding entity — requires careful sanctions-counsel review.

05 · How partner counsel works

Raj routes Russian-origin mandates to a sanctions-aware advisor (typically a UAE law firm with sanctions practice) BEFORE any property-side conversation. The compliance review is gating; the property work happens after.

Primary sources

• UAE Golden Visa — ICA Federal Authority →
• OFAC — US Treasury sanctions →
• UK OFSI sanctions →
• EU sanctions map →
• UAE Federal Tax Authority →

Cross-border brief

From Russia to Dubai.

Tell Raj what you're looking at and what you already have in place on the Russiaside. He'll coordinate the UAE property work + the partner-counsel referral.