HUNDREDS of Western-trained Cypriot lawyers and accountants earn a living from handling the affairs of Russian and Ukrainian offshore companies. The relationship has flourished since the island became a base for proto-capitalists from the former Soviet Union in the 1990s, thanks to a communist-era treaty on removing double taxation. A relaxed attitude to transactions involving cash-filled suitcases also helped.
Nicosia, the island’s capital, and Limassol, its largest port, are these days home to an estimated 50,000-60,000 former citizens of the old Soviet Union’s constituent countries. Limassol’s once-seedy waterfront now boasts smart blocks of flats, shopping malls and a gleaming marina for the billionaires’ superyachts. A bust of Alexander Pushkin, a 19th-century Russian poet, graces a seaside park. The wealthiest Russian and Ukrainian families flit between homes in Cyprus, London and Paris.
Although Russians are generally popular with Greek Cypriots as fellow members of the Eastern Orthodox church, a new...Continue reading
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