01 April 2013/20 Jumada l-Ula 1434/12 Farvardin 1391/21 Yi-Mao (2nd month) 4711
“It was not a bailout. It was a collective punishment. The amount of money that Cyprus required could have allowed a more gradual approach to addressing the economic structure problems. With these policies, not only the Cypriot financial system has suffered a serious blow, but the economy as well. And I have no doubt, that this will have also a fallout effect on the Eurozone on the whole…….Cyprus is doing much better than countries like Germany. And I think this issue about money laundering, it was an excuse…….it was reported that agents from German banks were coming to attract funds from Cyprus. Let me also say that what has happened to Cyprus is also related with a perverted image that they have created about Cyprus in the last few years. For example, it’s a place with money laundering, especially from Russia. And also that Cyprus is a headache to the rest of Europe. And that’s not true.”-Andreas Theophanous, economist University of Nicosia
The Bank of Cyprus has closed offices in the country of Romania! The ten branches will be closed for one week to prevent Romanians trying to take all their money out of their accounts.
It’s also been revealed the bank will be sold off!
The family of Cypriot President, Nicos Anastasiades, is being outed by Cypriot media, because it turns out they took millions of euros out of bank accounts just a few days before the IMF/ECB bailout went into effect.
According to local media reports, the president’s son-in-law co-ownes a company called A.Loutsios & Sons. That company transferred $27 million USD worth of promissory notes from Laiki Bank to a bank in London, U.K.
The Laiki (Popular) Bank was shut down as part of the undemocratic bailout (undemocratic because the IMF & ECB somehow circumvented the Cypriot Parliament).
President Anastasiades responded today by saying the country’s new high court judges will “….be given a mandate to investigate everything that is possibly related to me, including those relatives linked to me by marriage.”
It also turns out that some Cypriot politicians had their debts forgiven as part of the bailout (is that how the IMF & ECB circumvented the parliament?).
On 31 March, the leader of the Cypriot Orthodox Christian church demanded that the financial leaders of the country resign! He says the country’s problems are not economic: “If we [the government of Cyprus] had spent within our means, we would not have the results we see today….This misfortune that has occurred to our country seems like an economic problem but it isn’t, at its core you will find sin!”-Archbishop Chrysostomos II
Russia just announced they will not help individual Russians who have money in Cypriot banks, but they will help Russian companies.
Also, I noticed Russian media reports now linking the Cyprus bailout to a “war” over control of petroleum rights. I’ve been saying that from the beginning (check my past Cyprus postings). It’s known as Leviathan.