Bruno Valverde Cota runs real estate sales company which advertises ‘support in obtaining golden visas’
Russia’s honorary consul in Faro has lost his accreditation.
The fact that Russia had an honorary consul in the Algarve will probably be news to a lot of people – for the simple reason that it sounds beyond surreal.
But for those who cannot quite get their heads around it – relax: he is no longer considered to be ‘the honorary consul of the Russian Federation in the Algarve’.
Explain reports, the “ministry of foreign affairs has withdrawn the accreditation of the honorary consul of the Russian Federation in the Algarve. Bruno Valverde Cota was forced to leave his post for developing activities that are not in accordance with the Vienna convention”.
What could these activities be? No one is letting on.
Says SIC television news, the ministry has been “vague in its explanation (…) SIC understands that this was a question of conduct”.
Bruno Valverde Cota himself has “not wished to comment”.
It appears to have been his marriage to a Russian citizen that made him eligible for the honorary diplomatic title in 2020.
Mr Cota was described by Observador online earlier this year as the “CEO of Optimistic Plus, a financial, real estate and marketing consulting company which, among other services, provides support in obtaining golden visas in Portugal”.
This latter activity in itself constitutes a potential ‘conflict of interest’ with diplomatic relations, although Mr Coto appears to have assured Observador that Optimistic Plus never actually performed any business supporting the obtaining of golden visas. It was listed as an activity, but never happened…
Whatever the case, it took the Portuguese government nearly a year to wake up to the fact that having an honorary consul of the Russian Federation dealing in high end property in the Algarve was probably not the best look while Russia continues to lay waste a sovereign country that has dared to stand for freedom.
