Will Russia try to seize a foothold in the Med ?
Will Russia try to seize a foothold in the Med? Energy giant offers to restructure banks in exchange for gas exploration rights
Russia could use the crisis in Cyprus to secure a military foothold and energy rights in the Mediterranean, it was claimed last night.
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But in a move that has raised eyebrows, the Russian energy giant Gazprom offered Cyprus a plan in which the company will undertake the restructuring of the country’s banks in exchange for exploration rights for natural gas on the island.
Representatives of the Russian company submitted the proposal to the office of Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Sunday evening.
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It is also rumoured that the Kremlin is privately offering to help bail out Cyprus in exchange for the right to use a naval base in the Greek part of the island.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2295507/Will-Russia-try-seize-foothold-Med-Energy-giant-offers-restructure-banks-exchange-gas-exploration-rights.html#ixzz2NyfKgCdT
From June 2012 :
Russia's Masterstroke: Bailing Out Cyprus.
What a fine mess the Europeans have made with their deluded dream of a common European currency for 17 countries with different languages, cultures, traditions and economic systems. As a result of the experiment with the euro, almost all countries along Europe's southern rim are on the brink of bankruptcy. One of them is Cyprus. It, too, urgently needs a bailout. This week, the Cypriotic government needs €4bn to recapitalize the country's second largest bank.
Cyprus, however, is in a comfortable position. The other beggars are forced to accept bailout from the European Union in exchange for diminished national sovereignty, EU imposed austerity measures and direct supervision from Brussels over their budgets and economies. Cyprus, however, has an alternative. "We have other options," the Cypriotic Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly recently told journalists in Nicosia. Economists expect that to keep Cyprus afloat, it will need between €25 and 50bn in the coming years. Nicosia, however, is resisting pressure from the other EU countries to take a first bailout package worth as much as €10bn.
Cyprus does not want to accept the strings attached to the European offer. The Cypriotic alternative is called Russia. Last December, Moscow already gave Nicosia a bilateral loan of €3bn. Eager, since the era of Peter the Great, to acquire a strategic foothold in the Eastern Mediterranean, Russia is now offering even more. And with President Demetris Christofias of Cyprus happy to accommodate his friend Vladimir Putin, there is no doubt that Nicosia will turn to Moscow rather than to Brussels.
Christofias is a Communist – he is, in fact, the only Communist leader in the European Union – and, under the EU's rotating chairmanship, he will be chairing the EU meetings from July 1st until the end of the year.
http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3129/russia-cyprus-bailout
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