Government of Cyprus Forbidding Banks to Operate in Russian Rubles

The government of Cyprus ordered the banks to stop all operations with the Russian ruble. Local publication Politis disseminates the information.

At the same time, legal and accounting organizations began an inspection regarding the misuse of the accelerated business registration procedure, with the help of which Russians obtained residence and work permits in Cyprus.

Politis writes that the US will soon send a 24-member team to Cyprus, including members of the FBI and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Agency (FinCen). They will take part in the consideration of 29 court cases related to circumvention of sanctions against Russia.

Another publication, Cyprus Mail, writes that the decision to stop transactions with Russian currency and to involve American specialists in the investigation of these cases was made by the government against the background of the investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), which concerns the violation of the sanctions regime imposed against Russia in Cyprus.

The ICIJ investigation was published on November 14. In particular, it talks about the scandal related to investments of Russian businessmen on the island and “golden passports”. According to Cyprus Mail, employees of the PricewaterhouseCoopers office were involved in the circumvention of sanctions in Cyprus.

Following the publication of the ICIJ investigation, cards issued in Russia by the Chinese payment system UnionPay were suspended in Cyprus. The country’s finance ministry said the blocking of the cards did not constitute a government decree issued to financial institutions and that the suspension of UnionPay was “a unilateral decision by its provider in accordance with its risk assessment policy.”