21 March 2013: EU threatens Cyprus with cutoff of funds

Cyprus is considering to nationalize pension funds which hold between 2 and 3 million euros and issuing an emergency bond linked to future natural gas revenues as talks continue in Nicosia, Brussels and Moscow. The Government has decided to keep banks closed till Tuesday 26th next week in an effort to try to avoid a customer’s run on the bank when they open. The banks have been closed since Friday last week. The Cypriot Parliament on Tuesday rejected EU’s term and conditions for a Euro 10 Billion bailout and turned to Russia for aid. This comes amid threats for a complete cutoff in funds to Cyprus.

Finance Minister Michael Sarris has extended his stay in Moscow. Russian officials said that Sarris has asked for a further 5 billion euros on top of a five year extension and lower interest on an existing 2,5-billion euro loan given in 2011. Russian clients hold approximate 30 Billion Euros in Cypriot banks, and would be especially hard hit by the proposed bailout which threaten to confiscate 9,9% or more on all bank accounts with a balance above 100 000 Euros. That equals a confiscation of 3 – 5 B euros from Russian citizens’ dependent of which percentage is finally chosen. EU has indicated an even higher levy than 9,9% on deposits above 100.000.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will today meet with a delegation from the EU Commission in Moscow. Both President Vladimir Putin and Medvedev have expressed outrage with the way both EU and the Cyprus government have handled the bailout question. Russia was in spite of promises not consulted in advance. Putin called the bailout package “unfair, unprofessional and with unprecedented consequences”.

In a statement yesterday Medvedev said that Euro zone ministers had behaved “like a bull in a China shop” and likened the proposals to Soviet-era confiscations. This made little impression on EU-leaders who continued to stress that the bailout was fair and urgent action needed to save the overblown banking system in Cyprus from collapsing. The European Central Bank (ECB) warned simultaneously that Cyprus was running out of time. ECB would pull the plug on Cyprus unless the tiny country of 1 million people, quickly accepts a bailout.

That made little impression on Cypriots who continue to balk at EUs demands for a confiscation of 5,8 billion Euros from private accounts. This has so far been a taboo in Europe’s handling of the debt crisis. Private accounts have been regarded sacrosanct and not touched. The reason why EU in relation to Cyprus has chosen to break with this sacred principle, is probably due to the fact that a big number of Russian accounts are involved. Facing an election in September the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is afraid of being accused for bailing out rich Russian with for what might be claimed as German taxpayer’s money.

The first turbulence in global markets after the Cyprus crisis is slowly fading for now. Asian markets rose on FED chief, Ben Bernanke’s statement yesterday painting a more optimistic picture of the employment situation without indicating an end to monetary easing. The Euro has stabilized from steep falls earlier in the week. The handling of the Cyprus crisis has once again put the question of the survival of the common currency on the agenda and raised focus on negative growth, political instability and the mass unemployment inside the Euro zone.

On that basis global observers are asking whether the EU-leaders complete have miscalculated markets reaction in their handling of the Cyprus crisis. It is announced that the Cypriot President, Nikos Anastasiades, today is going to present his Plan B for how possibly get out of the crisis.

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20 March 2013: Cyprus might travel east

After serious miscalculations both on the part of the Cypriot government and the euro zones finance ministers, the newly elected President Nikos Anastasiades might be heading east. After building close and friendly relations with Angela Merkel and his German sister party, CDU, during the first month of his Presidency, the real content of these relations were put on a severe test during the Euro zone meeting last Friday.

Anastasiades was met with a done deal. His strong objections and clear statement that the proposed bailout would have no chance to pass Parliament, fell on death ears. When appealing to Merkel for flexibility when calling her on Monday, he was met with a cold shoulder and instruction to talk with the troika. Merkel also strongly advised against any contact with Russia.

This response and the Cypriot parliament’s flat rejection, might have given the Cypriot President exactly the encouragement he needed to demonstrate that he is nobody’s puddle. He is neither the property of the German Chancellor or the European Union. In a critical moment of need what the ruling technocratic elites in Europe were able to come up with, was a proposal to temper with private banking accounts and confiscate from 6.75 to 9,9% of their value. This infuriated everybody concerned from poor Cypriot pensioners to rich Russian oligarchs, Arab sheikhs and ordinary employees with small accounts. Nobody likes to have their savings stolen. Over the last days the Euro zone proposal has created an uproar. We can see the beginning of global financial crisis where the Euro falling as a stone and everybody asks which are the next banks to fall.

If this was a calculated risk on behalf of European technocrats they are paying a high price completely overlooking the explosive political dimension in Southern Europe. The President of European Central Bank, Mario Draghi, was as late as in September willing to take whatever it takes to save the Euro. By his strong statement he stabilized euro zone markets and the common currency. By treating a small, but very proud nation as a given entity, the euro zone and the financial markets are plunged back to where they were a year ago. The result of the German inspired austerities are there for everyone to see; negative growth, mass unemployment and new lost youth generations, especially in the periphery of Europe. This does not inspire belief in the high values of democracy and freedom preached by European technocrats.

During the session in the Cypriot parliament yesterday there was not a single vote in favor of the European bail out. Outside Parliament there were furious demonstrations and flag waving remarkably enough in favor of a Russian solution. No wonder that Anastasiades, humiliated and rejected from his Western European friends, feels for going east. His Minister of Finance is already in Moscow. If the President decides to take the next plane the whole nation shall stand behind him and wish him well in the negotiations. From being the “traitor” selling out Cypriot interests, he might during some days have turned into a national hero.

There is, however, be no easy sell for Anastasiades. President Vladimir Putin was furious and offended for not being consulted either by EU or Cyprus before last Friday’s decision. He found the proposed solution “unfair, unprofessional and with unforeseeable consequences”. Russians are world masters in chess, and each move must be carefully considered not at least from the Cypriot side.

But much is at stake also for Russia. The German Minister of Finance, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said this morning that Cypriots only have themselves to blame when they don’t understand that they have an overblown banking sector. From a logical point of view he might have a point. Psychologically he is building under the image of the arrogant German in a situation where the streets in Southern Europe are boiling and where especially bankers and the Brussels technocratic shall think twice before finger pointing. It might be easier for Anastasiades to find common language with their eastern orthodox brothers in Moscow than with a German Lutheran protestant.

Russia has recently given Cyprus a loan on Euro 2,5 billion. To prolong it with 5 years on better conditions might be the easiest part. But by playing hard ball with EU going east, Cyprus might be seeking a bail out partner for their banks in Moscow. For a Russia which already has deposited Euro 30 – 35 Billion in Cyprus, the 10 billion offered in bail out from EU, IMF and ECB, might seem such an excessive amount of money. And in addition: Qatari and Chinese money bags are flirting at the doors. Newly discovered gas on continental shelf is also a part of the game.

Might be that Western Europe in the end needs Cyprus more than Cyprus ever needed the euro. The Cyprus drama seems just about to begin.

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19 March 2013: Deadlock over Cyprus bailout

The Cypriot parliament is scheduled to vote over the Brussels agreed bailout later today. The meeting for yesterday was postponed when party deliberations showed that there was no majority in favor of the package. The President of Cyprus informed Angela Merkel last night that he had not been able to mobilize a majority for the bailout package which has created anger and fury in Cyprus and shaken international markets. The initial reactions to the so called “levy” have been disastrous. It is likely that today’s scheduled Parliament meeting again would be postponed. A reject of the bailout shall most probably create new tumults in the markets.

The Cyprus government has decided to close the banks today and most probably for the rest of the week to avoid a rush on withdrawal of deposits. The ATM machines which were emptied during the holidays have been filled up again and are functioning.

The decision to enter private banking accounts and confiscate them at will, have had far reaching effects. Major principles are at stake. The decision to put a levy on deposit accounts have scared global markets. Nervousness and risk aversion are back in play with focus on the Euro zone. Stock markets in America, Asia and Europe fell dramatically yesterday with Asia recovering this morning after digestion.

The big question is that when this could happen to euro member with a tiny economy as Cyprus; constituting 0,2% of the total euro zone GDP, who might next in line? Spain, Portugal or Italy? If the Cyprus bailout continues to be handled in an unprofessional manner this can lead to contagion and a run on the banks all over the euro zone.

The plain content of the Brussels decision is that it overstepped and violated sacred principles of private property rights. Governments should not mess with citizen’s private banking accounts regardless of which strong arguments you think you have. The “troika” representing some of the strongest capital forces in the world, has stressed that Cyprus has an overblown banking sector. Germany and other Euro countries accuse Cyprus for money laundering and that rich Russian oligarchs presumably have deposited money in Cypriot banks.

But are these news have not come to light over night? They have lived with Cyprus since the breakdown of the Soviet Union when Russian businesses without a functioning banking system at home turned its attention to the visa free Cyprus. Anti-money laundering measures are functioning more efficiently in Cyprus today then did when Cyprus entered the European Union 10 years ago and the Euro in 2006. Cyprus has been following the same rules and regulations practiced inside the European union and the Euro zone relating to money laundering.

At the same time Cyprus has been living high on Russian capital injections. Banks, law offices and auditors have prospered and so has the real estate sector. Why this sudden change of heart? What justifies that euro ministers and President Anastasiades permit to give banks a green light to intrude on and steal from clients banking accounts regardless of whether you call it a “levy” and not theft or for that sake a bank robbery.

The Cypriot government has used the last 24 hours to try sugar a decision which from the very beginning was ill thought. Brussels have seemingly blessed that Cypriots are free to decide to exempt smaller savings account from the “levy” as long as the total confiscation stands at 5.8 Billion Euro.

That does not change the sacrosanct principles involved in spite of Euro ministers and the Cyprus government now pretending to be modern Robin Hoods stealing more from the rich than the poor. Russian and British companies and private accounts are most severely hit. President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Medvedev are understandably furious. Russia gave Cyprus a generous loan on Euro 2,5 billion in 2011. Nevertheless neither Euro finance ministers nor the Cypriot government bothered to consult Moscow before this crucial decision was taken.

The Cypriot Minister of Finance has planned to go to Moscow on Wednesday presumably to ask for better terms. We wish him a good trip. The Minister might find that the timing for asking for more favorable terms and conditions on existing loans is ill planned when it comes on the top of a confiscation of might be 4 – 5 billion Euros. Putin has rightly called Friday’s decision “unprofessional, unfair and creating a dangerous precedent”.

For clients of MAYZUS Investment Company it is once more important to stress. Whatever outcome the planned “levy” shall have no impact on their deposits with MAYZUS Investment Company. Only a tiny portion of our funds are placed in Cypriot banks. Client funds are with prime banks outside Cyprus.

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