Uh-oh, more trouble in 'paradise'. AP Story covered at Business Insider here.
Russian companies have an estimated $19 billion in Cypriot bank accounts. Russians have for years seen Cyprus as an investor-friendly jurisdiction with lax banking regulations and low taxes.
A proposed bailout of Cyprus's economy would impose taxes on bank deposits of up to 9.9 percent. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the president criticized the plan in a meeting with economic advisers.
Putin was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that the decision, if taken, would "unjust, unprofessional and dangerous."
Looks like the Euro policymakers waited until the first of spring to foist this upon these Russian depositors so that if the Russians turned off the natural gas flow again in retaliation, at least they wouldn't freeze.
Message for Russian folks: Once you agree to sell your real output in exchange for Euro currency balances, your newly acquired Euro balances are at the mercy of the local Euro currency policymakers (who may apparently be morons) in the jurisdiction where they appear in the Euro currency computer system. If you don't want to end up in this situation, then probably best not to run Euro surpluses with the Eurozone in the first place.
3 comments:
why the ECB is yanking Russia's chain, taxing Russian mob deposits in Cyprus banks?
A message to the Russians, telling them to launder cash through Swiss/German/Dutch/British banks ... or else? That is, do business with the big boys, not behind their back?
Or is this at the request of Goldman Sachs?
"Putin: Cyprus Bank Levy is unjust..."
Coming from that well known paragon of virtue and justice, Putin, that's damning criticism.
Absolutely! It would be far more meainingful, and believable, coming from a banker's saint such as Cameron!
:(
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