Medvedev attacks Cyprus bank deposit levy
(03-18 20:10)
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called a proposed tax on bank deposits in Cyprus as part of a EU bailout deal a move akin to confiscation.
“We should say this directly: this simply looks like the confiscation of other people's money,’’ Russian news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying. “I do not know who the author of this idea is, but this is what it looks like,’’ AP reports.
Earlier Russian President Vladimir Putin condemnded the tax as “unfair, unprofessional and dangerous.’’
Moody's rating agency has estimated that up to US$19 billion in private Russian cash is held in Cyprus. The figure accounts for between a third and half of all Cypriot deposits, AFP reported.
Russia's number two bank VTB – a state-owned institution – alone had US$13.5 billion resting in Cyprus through a subsidiary and was due to lose a tenth of that amount.
“VTB Group is carefully monitoring the situation,'' the bank said in a statement, AFP reports. “We can only assess its repercussions after studying the text of the law.’’
|
|
|
|
