Oleg Deripaska, a Russian billionaire with ties to the Kremlin, has had his Cypriot citizenship revoked as the island nation clamps down on abuse of its passport-for-investment programme, according to local media.

Cyprus has stripped 26 wealthy people of their citizenship rights as part of a review of the 2013 policy that granted a passport to anybody who invested at least $2.2 million in the local economy, the Politis newspaper reported.

The Cypriot government has not confirmed the report. Mr Deripaska was once Russia’s richest man, making his fortune by consolidating Siberia’s vast aluminum resources under his control in the 1990s.

His estimated net worth today is $3 billion. Cypriot citizenship, which Mr Deripaska gained in 2017, granted him the right to travel and live across the European Union without the restrictions faced by Russian passport-holders.

In 2018, the US sanctioned Mr Deripaska over his alleged ties to Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, arguing that he and other Russian oligarchs directly benefited from the Putin regime's bad behaviour abroad.