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Russia rebuffs Cyprus
NICOSIA/MOSCOW - Russia rebuffed Cypriot entreaties for aid on Friday, leaving the island's increasingly isolated leaders scrambling to strike a bailout deal with the European Union by next week or face the collapse of its financial system.Nicosia angrily rejected a proposed levy on tax deposits in exchange for the EU bailout on Tuesday and turned to the Kremlin to renegotiate a loan deal, win more financing and lure Russian investors to Cypriot banks and gas reserves. "The talks have ended as far as the Russian side is concerned," Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov told reporters after two days of crisis talks with his Cypriot counterpart, Michael Sarris. Russians have billions of euros at stake in Cyprus's outsized and now crippled banking sector, a factor in the EU's unprecedented demand that bigger depositors take a hit in the interests of keeping Cyprus afloat. But Siluanov said Russian investors were not interested in Cypriot gas and that the talks had ended without result. Sarris was due to fly home, where lawmakers were locked in yet more crisis talks.
Posted by: Steve White 2013-03-22 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=364672 |