> A quote from that Glenny piece in case it's behind
> the FT's paywall: *
Walking back from Cyprus
In their brief 20 March 2013 "Walking Back From Cyprus" analysis/critique, Lee C. Buchheit (Cleary-Gottlieb) and Prof. Mitu Gulati appear to suggest that the larger deposits are not only by Russians of the sort to who whom Glenny refers. They write:
"The next bond maturing on 3 June 2013 in the amount
of €1.4 billion – a large chunk of which is reputed to
have been bought by international hedge funds over
the last six months at prices ranging from 70-75
cents in the euro – will be paid out at 100 cents in the
euro in about ten weeks. Each depositor in a Cypriot
bank [who is "taxed"], large and small, will be making
a solidarity contribution toward that payment to bond-
holders."
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2235359
http://www.voxeu.org/article/walking-back-cyprus
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* [ quoted excerpt: ]
> But the most visible Russian presence was to be found
> in and around the Middle East. Dubai and Israel
> were both cherished, the former for commercial reasons,
> the latter on cultural grounds. In relative terms,
> however, Cyprus was by far the most popular. It had
> everything the Moscow elite loved – Mediterranean
> sun, tax-haven status and a deeply incurious police
> force. The attraction of Cyprus’s Eastern Orthodox
> culture was also important. Most Russians were
> welcomed with open arms by Cypriots as co-confessionals
> and generous investors.
>
> Equally important but less well known was a considerable
> clandestine KGB presence on the island during the cold war.
> From here, Moscow would monitor events in the Middle East.
> When the oligarchs and crime syndicates started gutting
> the Russian economy, the remnants of that intelligence
> inetwork was vital in turning Cyprus into the world’s largest
> laundry for dubious money.
>