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Store robbed in broad daylight (updated)

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CCTV footage released by the police show the suspects in the shop

A JEWELLERY store in Ayia Napa was robbed in broad daylight on Friday by three people who had gone into the store pretending to be customers, police said.

According to Famagusta Police spokesman Giorgos Economou, two men and one woman entered the store on Kryou Nerou Road at around 10.30am and asked the two female employees to show them a number of items.

“The three assailants managed to corner the two employees and tie them up with tape and then grabbed as many pieces of jewellery as they could before making their getaway,” he said.

“The value of the stolen items has yet to be calculated by the owner who told officers that the jewellery is not covered by insurance,” he added.

Economou said that evidence had been taken from the store which had been sent for forensic testing.

After studying CCTV footage, police released images and details of the three people (two men and one woman) they were looking for in connection with the heist.

The woman is described as being 30 to 40 years old, with blonde hair. She was wearing a black hat, blue blouse and black trousers and carried a large black bag on her shoulder.

One of the men was described as being 45-50 years old, of medium build, who wore a black shirt and a black bag around his waist.

The second man is believed to be 30-35 years old, of medium build, who wore a black shirt, black shorts with green stripes and sports shoes.

Police call on anyone with information as to their whereabouts to contact Famagusta CID, their nearest police station or the Citizen’s Hotline on 1460.

 

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Obama holds out over Syria air strikes at G20 summit

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G20 summit in St. Petersburg

By Steve Gutterman and Matt Spetalnick

U.S. President Barack Obama defied pressure to abandon plans for air strikes against Syria at a summit on Friday which left world leaders divided on the conflict but united behind a call to spur economic growth.

Leaders of the Group of Twenty (G20) developed and developing economies, who account for 90 percent of the world economy and two thirds of its population, agreed that the economy was not out of crisis yet but was on the mend.

But Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin remained far apart on Syria after a 20-minute one-on-one talk on the sidelines of the summit on Friday, following a tense group discussion on the civil war over dinner late on Thursday.

“There has been a long discussion with a clear split in the group,” a G20 source said after the dinner in a Tsarist-era palace in Russia’s former imperial capital, St. Petersburg.

Putin said he and Obama stood their ground and neither blinked but at least there was dialogue.

“We hear one another, and understand the arguments but we don’t agree. I don’t agree with his arguments, he doesn’t agree with mine. But we hear them, try to analyse them,” he said.

China’s Xi Jinping also tried, unsuccessfully, to dissuade Obama from military action.

“A political solution is the only right way out for the Syrian crisis, and a military strike cannot solve the problem from the root,” Xinhua news agency quoted Xi as saying. “We expect certain countries to have a second thought before action.”

Washington says troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad carried out a poison gas attack which killed over 1,400 people in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21. Putin said the attack was carried out by the rebels in order to provoke outside military intervention against Assad.

Unable to win United Nations Security Council backing for military action because of the opposition by veto-wielding Russia, Obama is seeking the backing of the U.S. Congress.

He stuck to that position in St. Petersburg, despite a warning by U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon about the need to find a political settlement to end the war.

“Every day that we lose is a day when scores of innocent civilians die,” Ban said.

Ben Rhodes, Obama’s deputy national security adviser, told reporters the president had “once again underscored the very high confidence that we have” of Assad’s role in the attack.

PARALYSED

Obama also told the G20 leaders that it was important to uphold international norms against chemical weapons and depicted the Security Council as paralysed.

Participants at the dinner said the tension between Putin and Obama was palpable but that they seemed at pains to avoid an escalation. Obama said credit was due to Putin for facilitating the long discussion of the Syrian crisis on Thursday night. .

Obama defended his position at the talks with Xi, whose country has veto powers on the Security Council.

Without referring to Syria, Obama said before meeting Xi: “Although there will continue to be some significant disagreements and sources of tension, I am confident that they can be managed.”

He appeared isolated in St. Petersburg, despite France’s support for military action, and the presence of allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But his actions suggested that winning the approval of Congress is his most important short-term goal.

Obama said most G20 leaders agreed that Assad launched the August 21 chemical weapons attack, but were divided over whether to use force in Syria without U.N. Security Council support.

Washington’s ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, made clear on Thursday that the United States had given up trying to work with the Council on the issue, and accused Russia of holding it hostage.

The dispute over Syria has deepened strains in U.S.-Russian ties, already difficult because of differences over human rights and Moscow’s hosting of Edward Snowden, a spy agency contractor who revealed details of U.S. surveillance programmes. Putin said Obama had not requested Snowden’s extradition on Friday, adding that it would be impossible anyway.

Obama planned to meet rights activists, including gay rights campaigners, to show support for civil society in Russia, where critics say Putin has clamped down on dissent in his third term.

But some invitees have declined to attend, citing what they said were repeated changes in the timing of the meeting. One added her voice to warnings against a military strike on Syria.

WORLD ECONOMY IMPROVING

The G20 achieved unprecedented cooperation between developed and emerging nations to stave off economic collapse during the 2009 financial crisis, but the harmony has since waned.

Despite their differences, the leaders agreed on a summit declaration that the global economy is improving although it is too early to declare an end to crisis.

The leaders stuck closely to a statement issued by G20 finance ministers in July that demanded monetary policy changes must be “carefully calibrated and clearly communicated”.

“Our most urgent need is to increase the momentum of the global recovery, generate higher growth and better jobs, while strengthening the foundations for long-term growth and avoiding policies that could cause the recovery to falter or promote growth at other countries’ expense,” the leaders said.

Member states are at odds as the U.S. recovery gains pace, Europe lags, and developing economies worry about the impact of the Federal Reserve’s plans to stop a bond-buying programme that has helped stimulate the U.S. economy.

The BRICS emerging economies – Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil – have agreed to commit $100 billion to a currency reserve pool that could help defend against a balance of payments crisis, but the mechanism will take time to set up.

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Gas well glitch not unusual

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Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis

IT WAS not unusual for a glitch to delay flaring a natural gas well, officials said on Friday, as a production test at an offshore field was underway.

The drill stem test (DST) is a simulated production yielding key data on the well, such as the pressure and flow of the gas and the fuel content.

As part of the DST, US-based Noble Energy, the company granted the concession, was also set to ‘flare’, or light up, the well. Flaring gives clues to the content of the natural gas in the seabed.

Due to a mechanical glitch with the valves, flaring the gas was not possible on Thursday, the scheduled date.

“The latest information is that the company is exploring its options regarding the glitch and whether it can repair it or change the malfunctioning equipment,” Energy Minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis told reporters.

The chairman of the state natural gas company said these glitches were nothing unusual.

“It is a complicated procedure; there is a lot of equipment … so sometimes something happens. It is nothing unusual and does not worry us at all,” Charalambos Ellinas said.

Measurements would take a week and preliminary findings could be expected by the end of the month.

The Aphrodite prospect in Block 12 is estimated to hold anywhere from 5 to 8 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas. Officials have said that 6 tcf is sufficient to make the prospect economically viable for LNG exports.

The production test at the A-2 well is an appraisal drilling to confirm those estimates. Should the results prove inconclusive, the drilling of a second appraisal well might be necessary.

 

 

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Olympic bidders locked in tight race ahead of 2020 vote

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Istanbul 2020

By Karolos Grohmann
THE race for three cities hoping to land the 2020 summer Olympics will go down to the wire after two years of campaigning as Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo grapple with their own problems ahead of today’s vote.
The International Olympic Committee will elect the winning bid at their session in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with no clear front runner in the campaign to host the world’s biggest and most expensive multi-sport event.
With bid leaders of the three cities preparing for their final pitch in Argentina, backed on site by political leaders and a string of celebrity supporters, senior IOC officials say the race has never been so open.
“It is not like before when the decision has often been made,” IOC Vice President and presidential hopeful Thomas Bach said. “This time I think the presentation will be very important, crucial even.”
Each of the three cities have long highlighted their own assets and the advantages they bring to the Olympic movement should they be chosen to succeed 2016 Rio de Janeiro as the next summer Games hosts.
Istanbul is pitching Games on two continents – the European and Asian parts of the metropolis – as Turkey, with its growing economy, hopes to become the first country with a majority Muslim population to get the Olympics.
Japan’s Tokyo, looking to host them for a second time after 1964, is branding its bid as a safe and solid choice amid financially turbulent times as it incorporates some venues from their first Games to its new proposal.
Madrid, campaigning for the third straight time, is playing up its high percentage of existing venues, placing sport at the very heart of their bid.
The choice the 100-plus IOC members will make, however, is likely to also depend on non-related Games issues.
Istanbul, making its fifth attempt in the last six votes, was rocked by violent anti-government demonstrations in June that spread to much of the country, shaving off some of the bid’s momentum up to that point.
Spain has been in and out of recession since a decade-long property bubble burst in 2008 and, with unemployment at around 27 per cent, is expected to remain in an economic slump for at least another year.
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy also admitted a corruption scandal, which has undermined the authority of Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP), has hit the country’s image abroad.
Tokyo, which failed to land the 2016 Olympics and is considered by some as having a slight advantage over its rival bidders, may be advertising its bid as a solid choice for the IOC, but the 2011 deadly earthquake and subsequent nuclear disaster at Fukushima is still a top news story.
With highly radioactive water spilling into the ocean and Japan raising the severity level of the latest leaks, it is news that Tokyo does not need before the vote.
An IOC evaluation report released in June offered few clues on potential frontrunners, with all three bids being “of high quality”, putting the decision firmly into the hands of the IOC membership, who will vote after that final – crucial – presentation.

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‘The public must feel safe’

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Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou declaring his war on crime

By Peter Stevenson

THE POLICE will today launch a concerted two month war on all forms of crime, both organised and non-organised, Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou said on Friday.

The minister gave explicit instructions to police hierarchy during a meeting when he stressed that the public needs to feel safe again.

During the meeting Nicolaou explained to officers the methods he felt needed improving with regards to fighting crime. He demanded that information needs to be gathered faster and action plans developed quicker.

An evaluation will be made as to the effectiveness of new measures at the end of this month with a final evaluation due at the end of October, Nicolaou explained.

The minister added that the two-month campaign is part of a wider government policy to effectively tackle crime.

“We will look to deal with organised crime and their activities like casinos, online betting, illegal private security agencies, loan sharks and other activities which include violence, intimidation and threats,” he said.

During Friday’s meeting, he added, there was a discussion and an assessment of the progress made by police so far, and said that the government requires direct, decisive, orderly and effective action to deal with criminal activities.

“We have decided that for two months we will declare a war on crime, decisively and without hesitation in a manner that will send the message that this situation can not go on any longer,” he said.

Nicolaou added that the police will show zero tolerance.

“The police needs to put a stop to crime and at the same time send a message to criminals that their actions cannot continue.”

 

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Recession in Cyprus accelerates to 5.9 per cent

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news briefs (rect)

The Cypriot economy shrank by 5.9 per cent year on year in the second quarter of 2013, marking its eighth consecutive quarterly GDP reduction, figures released by the Cyprus Statistical Service (CyStat) show.

Taking into account the correction on seasonally adjusted data, the recession reached 5.7 per cent. Compared with the first quarter of 2013, the economy shrank by 1.8 per cent.
The economy’s main growth drivers, such as the secondary sector (construction, manufacturing), as well as in the sectors of tourism, banking, trade, transport and other services registered negative growth rates.

The figures released on Friday, exceed CyStat’s flash estimate released in August on a 5.7 per cent negative growth rate.

The European Commission, the European Central Bank and the IMF, collectively know as the troika estimate that the Cypriot GDP will shrink by 8.7 per cent in 2013.

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Extended shop hours proclaimed a success

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shopping02

By Stefanos Evripidou

EXTENDED OPENING hours and Sunday openings has been warmly welcomed by Cypriot consumers, and has helped create employment while injecting money into the banking system and state coffers, said leading retailer Nicos Shacolas yesterday.

In a written statement, Shacolas, whose business group includes Debenhams, Next, Peacocks, IKEA and the Mall of Cyprus, called on the government to renew its decision to temporarily extend opening hours as a means of helping the sluggish economy.

The labour ministry issued a decree on July 9 for shops outside tourist areas to stay open until 10pm on week days and from 9am until 9pm on Sundays.

The decree expires on October 13, while summer opening hours for tourist areas ends on November 30.

Shacolas argued that the government’s decision proved be “very correct and beneficial” to the country. According to the businessman, consumers have embraced it, the retail market has grown stronger, and a large number of unemployed Cypriots, including many students have been employed as a result.

He said the healthy competition on Wednesday afternoons and Sundays has helped maintain low prices on many consumer goods. “This is self-evident,” he said.

“The fact that the measure has helped the economy and retail trade is reinforced by the fact that the Bank of Cyprus management found that in August 2013, for the first time since last March, money inflows were greater than outflows,” he added.

Shacolas argued to really test the merits of the decree, it should be implemented for a whole year through all four seasons, allowing employers to take the necessary measures and hire additional staff on a permanent basis.

At the very least, the government should extend the decree to November 30 since in any case, on December 1, the Christmas timetable comes into effect which allows shops to stay open throughout Cyprus all days of the week for the entire month, he said.

The head of Shacolas Group raised the sensitive issue of rising unemployment to ask what was the point of firing the additional staff hired for Wednesday afternoons and Sundays, just to rehire them a month and a half later.

On a final note, he maintained that on a weekly basis, business on Wednesdays and Sundays gets busier and busier, while the total weekly turnover also increasing.

The new decree has been slammed by small shopkeepers’ union POVEK, which argues that it only caters to big shopping centers and malls, while stifling the turnover of smaller businesses. POVEK intends to challenge the decree legally.

 

 

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Attorney-general steps down ahead of time (Updated)

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By Stefanos Evripidou

ATTORNEY-GENERAL Petros Clerides has submitted his resignation, the government revealed yesterday.

Clerides, 67, will be leaving his post on September 15. Reports said he would have been retiring in a few months.

The outgoing legal chief was born in Nicosia and trained in Athens. He spent almost his entire career at the Legal Service, joining at the age of 26 as a legal assistant after only two years as a private lawyer.

In 2000, he was appointed deputy Attorney-general and in May 2005 Attorney-general.

In an interview with the Cyprus Mail three years ago, Clerides said:  “My only goal is to leave this post and have a good name, nothing more… Not even in my most ambitious dreams did I ever imagine that I’d hold this position.”

His long career has not been without incident.

Having jurisdiction over all criminal cases, the AG is responsible for deciding whether a case should go forward or be withdrawn. He also has authority over private criminal cases.

Clerides came under heavy fire when he openly admitted on television that he had used his ‘nolle prosequi’ powers to drop charges against his son related to driving offences.

His handling of the high-profile Helios air crash and Mari explosion trials also attracted plenty of criticism while in February this year the Supreme Court censured Clerides over comments he made concerning an attempt to seize a ministerial car – in public – for an unpaid state debt.

More recently, Clerides and the government have traded blows over who was responsible for the legal preparations made to set up a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the causes of Cyprus’ near economic collapse.

After former president Demetris Christofias refused to take oral questions at the inquiry, the panel referred his refusal to the AG, calling on him to rule whether Chrisrtofias violated the law by refusing to cooperate.

Former attorney-general Alecos Markides waded into the fray saying that the panel inquiry was wrongly set up and therefore, technically, illegal.

The government pointed out that the AG had signed off on the establishment of the committee so it must be legal, at which point, Clerides countered that he signs off on many new beginnings but at no point was he asked or did he deliver a legal opinion on the establishment of the economic inquiry.

To date, Clerides has yet to respond to the committee of inquiry regarding Christofias’ refusal to play ball with the panel.

President Nicos Anastasiades will replace the outgoing attorney-general with Supreme Court judge Costas Clerides. The new top lawyer will be sworn in on September 16.

Costas Clerides, 61, was appointed Supreme Court judge in 2009.

He read law in London and was called to the Bar at the MiddleTemple.

After his return to Cyprus he practised law for 10 years before he was appointed district judge in 1988.

He was promoted to senior district judge in 1996 and district court president a year later.

The soon-to-be appointed Clerides has served as the president of the Limassol Assizes Court, administrative president of the Larnaca-Famagusta district court and, administrative president of the Nicosia-Kyrenia District Court.

He is married and has one son.

 

 

 

 

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Art world mourns passing of Ioannis

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artist ioannis

ARTIST IOANNIS (Antoniou), who died on Thursday aged 58 following a serious health problem, was buried on Saturday in Limassol.

Ioannis was born in Famagusta in 1955 and was educated in France. He was one of the founders of the Diaspro art centre in Nicosia where he exhibited his work in the eighties. Ioannis also participated in a number of group exhibitions in Cyprus, Greece, Italy and the UK and won a prize for his work in ceramics at the Baghdad Biennale in 1989.

More work would follow over the years. He was one of the artists in the 2011 exhibition by the Evagoras and Kathleen Lanitis foundation entitled “The Object: Stories and Representations”.

The education and culture ministry expressed its “deepest sorrow” for Ioannis’ death and hailed his contribution to contemporary Cypriot art. His contribution bore the marks of influences from new realism, pop art and particularly arte povera, the announcement said.

“But he carried those influences in his own way, taking in the ordinary and the seemingly insignificant in the every day experience,” said the education ministry.

“His contribution to the cultivation of critical thinking surrounding Cyprus’ contemporary art remains invaluable,” the education ministry said.

The head of the education ministry’s cultural services was due to lay a wreath in Ioannis’ memory at his funeral in Sfalaggiotisa’s in Limassol.

 

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Visiting Cypriot drowns off Dhekelia

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news briefs (rect)

A 70-YEAR MAN, Pantelis Adamides, was found drowned on Friday afternoon at Xylotymbou fishing shelter, within Dhekelia sovereign base area (SBA).

Adamides, a Cypriot who resided permanently in the UK, was visiting Cyprus alone, the Cyprus News Agency said.

SBA police said that passersby spotted Adamides about two metres off the shore at about 4.30pm, and were unable to revive him.

A post mortem on Saturday confirmed Adamides drowned. He leaves behind a wife and three children.

 

 

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Vettel on pole for Italian Grand Prix

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Italian Formula One Grand Prix

By Alan Baldwin

Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel seized pole position for the Italian Grand Prix and left his title rivals trailing with Red Bull locking out the front row in qualifying on Saturday.

Australian Mark Webber will line up alongside on the front row for his last race in Europe while Germany’s Nico Hulkenberg sprung a huge surprise by grabbing third place on the grid for Ferrari-powered Sauber.

Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Vettel’s closest title rival with a 46 point gap to make up, qualified fifth and behind Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa with Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo watching.

Lewis Hamilton, last year’s winner for McLaren who had entered the weekend chasing a fifth successive pole, failed to make the top 10 and starts 12th for Mercedes.

The pole was the 40th of Vettel’s F1 career and came at a track that Red Bull principal Christian Horner said only last month was something of an Achilles heel for the team along with Belgium.

However, Vettel won in Belgium and the 26-year-old German took his first Formula One victory at Monza in 2008 for Toro Rosso while also winning for Red Bull in 2011.

“This weekend, the car was fantastic. We had a really strong pace yesterday and we were able to take that into qualifying today,” he told reporters on a sunny afternoon at the ‘Pista Magica’.

“In the end, it’s a bit of a surprise to have both cars on front row at a place where historically we’ve had bad years. This year it seems to work well and hopefully we’ll have a good race tomorrow.”

LIKE AN IDIOT

Hamilton was left shaking his head, even if he seemed to be held up by Force India’s Adrian Sutil.

“I just drove like an idiot. That’s the worst I’ve driven for a long, long time. I’m sorry to the team,” he told reporters.

“I just didn’t drive well. There’s not really much more to say. I was quick in Q1 (the first phase) and then I don’t know. I’ll do whatever I can from where I am but it’s going to be tough,” added the 2008 champion.

Hulkenberg, who has been seen as a possible replacement for Massa at Ferrari at the end of the season, did his chances no harm with a sensational performance for his struggling Swiss team.

The German seemed as surprised as anyone, although Monza is a super-fast track and unlike the others where the Sauber has struggled for downforce this season.

“I didn’t expect it, especially after a very difficult Friday. The guys have done a fantastic job to turn the car around,” said Hulkenberg, who has become more used to qualifying just outside the top 10.

Massa, who has not won a race since 2008, made clear he would be no hindrance to Alonso on Sunday after doing everything he could to give him a tow in his slipstream down the long Monza straight.

“He’s fighting for the championship, I’m not fighting, I’ll do whatever is important for the team,” said the Brazilian.

Radio traffic towards the end of the session appeared to indicate Alonso had sounded off at the team, although it was unclear at what point in the proceedings the comments were made, but the Spaniard made a point of stressing the positives afterwards.

“It is the first time in many races that I will be able to see a Red Bull rear wing first hand on the grid and on the first lap and first corner I can attack,” he said.

“It was an extremely, extremely good qualifying for us and a great team effort,” he declared.

The session ended with a cloud of dust when the Toro Rosso of Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne went wide into the gravel at Parabolica.

Webber was right behind Vergne but felt the lost time had not cost him pole.

“In the dust I couldn’t see if he had just put a wheel off and was continuing on the circuit or where he’d gone,” said the Australian. “Then when I got around I saw he was in the gravel. So it cost me, but it wasn’t enough for me to get Seb.”

Nico Rosberg qualified sixth for Mercedes with Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo, who replaces compatriot Webber next season at Red Bull, seventh.

McLaren’s Sergio Perez and Jenson Button will line up eighth and ninth with the team celebrating their 50th anniversary this weekend.

Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, whose title hopes are fast receding, qualified 11th.

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Greek premier says economic pain will ease next year

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Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras delivers his state of the economy speech, an annual tradition at the Thessaloniki International Fair

By Lefteris Papadimas and Karolina Tagaris

Greece’s economic pain will ease in 2014 as it exits a recession that will be less acute than forecast this year, helping the country meet its bailout targets, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Saturday.

The country is struggling through a six-year slump that has shrunk its economy by more than a quarter, left more than one in four of the workforce jobless, pushed up poverty levels and shuttered thousands of businesses.

The European Union and International Monetary Fund, which have bailed the country out with two multi-billion euro rescue packages, project gross domestic product will shrink 4.2 percent this year after contracting 6.4 percent in 2012.

But Samaras, addressing an annual trade fair in Greece’s second city of Thessaloniki, said the 2013 slump would be “smaller than forecast”. He promised Greeks worn down by the country’s worst post-war crisis a return to growth next year.

In a speech branded “delirious” by the leftist opposition Syriza party ahead of planned anti-austerity rallies in the city, Samaras said: “This year was the hardest, the most crucial, and it turned out to be the most successful.

“It was the hardest… because Greece paid for all the sins of the past”.

In a sign the country’s long slump may indeed be bottoming out, data this week showed the economy shrank 3.8 percent in the second quarter, helped by a rebound in tourism. That was the narrowest annual decline in nearly three years.

Greece’s lenders expect a return to anaemic growth of 0.6 percent in 2014 for an economy that has slumped 23 percent since 2008, while austerity measures have crippled private consumption and unemployment risen to 27 percent.

The lenders expect that rate to edge down to 26 percent next year, and economic growth to pick up faster after 2015.

‘LIKE A THIEF’

Samaras said Athens would beat this year’s main fiscal target of achieving a surplus on its primary budget, which excludes debt financing, allowing it to seek further debt relief from its euro zone partners.

“Greece is sticking to its promises and attaining its goals. The only thing needed is for our lenders to also keep their promises,” he said.

Excluded from financial markets since 2010, Greece has been kept afloat solely with 240 billion euros in loans and, under the current programme, will be financed until the second half of 2014. The IMF and Greece estimate that Athens will need an extra 10-11 billion euros in 2014-2015.

The euro zone is likely to agree to further financing in November, after the “troika” of EU, ECB and IMF inspectors, due in Athens on Sept 22, finish an assessment of its efforts to carry out painful reforms.

The reforms include selling off state assets and a deeply divisive plan for a transfer and layoff scheme for 25,000 public workers – mainly teachers and municipal police – that has triggered marches, rallies and strikes in protest.

Dozens of municipal police officers holding banners reading “No to firings!” rallied outside the hall where Samaras was speaking. About 4,000 police officers were deployed to the streets.

As he did last year, Samaras broke with tradition and made only a brief appearance to inaugurate the prominent event rather than making the customary annual economic policy speech delivered by his predecessors.

“Like a thief at TIF (Thessaloniki International Fair),” the leftist Avgi newspaper screamed on its front page on Saturday.

He was due to return to Athens later on Saturday before anti-austerity groups and workers unions, among them municipality employees, fire brigade and coast guard workers, take to the city’s streets.

Syriza accused Samaras of being out of touch with the reality of 1.5 million jobless Greeks.

“The main question the prime minister left hanging was if he knows which country he lives in,” Syriza said.

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World Bank to help with civil service reform

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civil service

A WORLD Bank team is due to arrive to Cyprus this Monday as part of an agreement to help reform the public service, ahead of a reform action plan to be announced by the president next week.

Commissioner for civil service reform Emanuella Lambrianides told the Cyprus News Agency the president will be announcing an action plan on modernising government and its institutions next week on Friday.

As part of its bailout agreement, Cyprus has agreed with its international lenders to reform its public administration. The government signed an agreement in early August with the UK’s public body, the National School of Government International (NSGI), a inter-departmental body dedicated to civil service reform. The body will offer consultancy services and will work alongside the World Bank.

Lambrianides said that during its visit, an 18-person World Bank team will look into the ministries of health, education and agriculture and will be accompanied by an NSGI team which will be looking into staff management, the state’s payroll, civil servants’ evaluation system and staff mobility. Later in the month, an NSGI team is due to look into local government and the Companies’ Registrar, Lambrianides said.

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Steep decline in fruit bat numbers

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Bats2

By Maria Gregoriou

BAT LOVERS invited to join a special bat-watching event to celebrate European Bat Night this Friday will be lucky if they encounter Cyprus’ only species of fruit bat.

Numbers of Cyprus’ indigenous fruit bat have decreased by a shocking 85 per cent over the last four years, according to the agriculture ministry.

“The main reason why the number of this type of bat has decreased is because agriculture has fallen off in recent years. As the bats do not find enough to eat, they move away to places like Turkey,” said Elena Erotokritou, an official from the environment department at the agriculture ministry.

Cyprus is the only country in the European Union to host fruit bats while its other 18 species of bats are all insect eaters.

The bat-watching event will be held at the Athalassas environmental centre on September 13 at 6pm. Bat detectors, or ultrasound machines, will be used for participants to listen to bats as they cannot be heard with the naked ear.

“Most countries have this event at the end of August but as August is a holiday month, we wanted to give the opportunity to as many people as possible to learn about bats,” Erotokritou said.

A presentation on bat detection will be given at the event.

The state environment department follows EU protocols for the protection of bats. “Some people thought and still do think that bats are bad and kill them,” she said.

“Bats are very good for the environment because they are a natural pesticide. One bat may eat over 3,000 insects a night.”

The endangered fruit bat also plays a key role.

“Fruit bats spit out pips and therefore contribute to the cultivation of more trees,” Erotokritou said.

 

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Free, but far too costly

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A. Dinou writing about bird fatalities from wind turbines (Sunday Mail, September 1) has got the facts completely wrong.

There are millions of birds (and bats) killed by turbines, and relatively few by aircraft, though large numbers of migratory birds perish by flying into oil platform flares.

A. Dinou says wind is free. It is, but the cost of creating electricity from it is incredibly expensive, especially from offshore units. Mixing up bladder cancer and wars with the simple arithmetic associated with wasteful and ineffective wind farms is just a red herring.

Data released by one of the UK’s largest green energy companies only last month showed that a farm with 17 huge turbines produced enough electricity to boil two to three kettles at a time. Also last month three big farms even took electricity out of the UK’s National Grid to run basic power supplies on site.

Incidentally, I am not actually a birds’ rights champion. I am simply concerned to point out some of the many now widely recognised disadvantages of pouring vast sums of taxpayers’ money into an almost useless and desperately uneconomic so-called alternative energy source.

Clive Turner, Paphos

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An alternate look at Cyprus rent owed

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Following the interesting findings of Dr. Alan Waring, “Does the UK Owe Cyprus rent for the SBAs?”, published in the Cyprus Mail recently, it could be interesting to see if in fact Britain also owes Turkey unpaid revenues for the period between 1878 and 1914, when it occupied and administered the island under the terms of the Cyprus Convention, in which Britain agreed to support Turkey in its claims against Russia for return of land seized from the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-8.

Article 3 of the Annex to the Convention states: “That England will pay to the Porte whatever is the present excess of revenue over expenditure in the island; (this excess to be calculated upon and determined by the average of the last five years, stated to be 22,336 purses, to be duly verified hereafter, and to the exclusion of the produce of State and Crown lands let or sold during that period.)”

The problem turned out to be that so many Turkish Cypriots left the island after 1878 that anticipated revenues fell. Nevertheless the question itself is interesting — does Britain owe Turkey rental? — since the answer in itself (it doesn’t) would underline the difference between the Anglo-Turkish treaty and the 1960 one.

Although it is commonly said that Britain leased Cyprus from the Turks, that is actually not the case. It only occupied and administered it, with the provision that if Russia handed back Kars, near the border with Georgia, the British would immediately evacuate the island. In fact Russia did hand it back under the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk March 1918, but of course by then the 1878 Treaty was in the dustbin.

Altan Houssein

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Beware phony job ads

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Enough is enough. While Cyprus’ economy is indeed struggling and unemployment increasing, it’s time people knew what they are up against when it comes to all the jobs posted by local recruitment agencies. Some of these jobs in Cyprus posted online are real, and many are not.

Why would they post ‘fake ads’ online? Here are two very simple and strategic reasons:

Firstly: they entice jobhunters to apply and thereby leave their resume and credentials. This then allows the recruitment agency to increase their database of human resources and lets them boast how large their database is when employers do come looking for personnel.

Secondly: for internet marketing and search engine optimisation purposes. The more content they post – either on their own website or on third party websites such as job-seeking portals – the more exposure they generate for their own company/brand and the better they rank on search engines such as Google.

Especially since they are using specific key words such as “jobs”, “Cyprus” “bank”, “Forex” or whatever other industry.

They might think it’s harmless and ultimately still helping, but in fact it is demoralising, sends out false hopes, wastes people’s time and is an unprofessional, if not illegal business practice.

Andy Kay

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Blame game over Mari muddied the key issues

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The four stages that Johan van den Kerkhof uses to analyse the causes of the Mari disaster are alright up to a point.

However, his Stage 2 (The storage of the containers) and Stage 3 (The blast) omit completely the critically important requirements of the EU Major Hazards Directive imposed on the EAC Vassilikos site operator adjacent to the Mari site.

The Directive’s requirements of EAC include Article 7 on the creation, maintenance and revision of an effective Major Accident Prevention Policy “designed to guarantee a high level of protection for man and the environment by appropriate means, structures and management systems”; Article 8 on the prevention of ‘domino effects’ from any nearby major hazards; Article 9 the obligation to properly update its statutory Safety Report – in this instance after the arrival of the munitions at Mari in 2009.

The Polyviou report on Mari (not mentioned by Mr Kerkhof) was damning in its criticism of many identified causal factors. He named President Christofias as having the over-riding responsibility for the tragedy, plus a number of ministers, military officers and other officials whom he concluded also bore significant responsibility.

He also savagely criticised the laissez-faire culture of the turning of blind eyes and avoidance of personal responsibility. While not responsible for the Mari explosion per se, EAC failed to comprehend the changed risk profile of their site after the munitions arrived at Mari in 2009 (which they knew about) and failed to respond immediately and appropriately to their EU Directive obligations.

This failure almost certainly led to the Vassilikos power station being left rather ‘naked’ in terms of domino effects from an explosion at Mari.

The chapter on the Mari-Vassilikos disaster in my recent book Corporate Risk and Governance ends: “The case not only highlights the maxim that ‘time and major hazards wait for no man’ but also demonstrates that failure to follow with good discipline the well-known principles and practices of major hazards risk control is likely to end in disaster.

“Sovereign corruption mixed with ineptitude and political expediency is a toxic combination that cannot co-exist with the effective control of major hazards.”

Dr Alan Waring,
Larnaca

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How the banking sector was destroyed

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Former CB governor Athanasios Orphanides in the spotlight last month

Below is an excerpt of the written statement, submitted by the former governor of the Central Bank Athanasios Orphanides to the investigative committee for the economy last month, in which he gives a chronological account of how the actions and decisions of the AKEL government and the Central Bank led to haircut of deposits and destruction of the banking sector.

The second half of 2012 was an unpleasant surprise. Even though I was away from Cyprus most of the time, I was monitoring the unpleasant developments quite closely.
After I left the Central Bank in May 2012, AKEL secured simultaneously complete control of both the government and the supervisory authority of the banking system. I was concerned about the deliberate harm AKEL could do to the banking system, working with the Central Bank, in order to serve party and other interests. With the presidential election less than a year away, it was convenient to target the banks. Banks are an easy target for populism. It was convenient for the party to argue that the banks were exclusively to blame for all Cyprus’ ills.
Of course this strategy was destroying confidence in the banking system. In an open letter I addressed to President Christofias, I warned that this would harm our children’s futures and that the scale of damage could be enormous.
Unfortunately, the relentless attack by AKEL through the Central Bank proved more damaging than I had expected. It also proved very well prepared. The first unpleasant surprise was that from the first day, the Central Bank’s new leadership changed the responsibilities of key technocrats at important posts.
Soon after, it became clear that the target was the banking system in general and more specifically the Bank of Cyprus (BoC). One of the first moves was to change the methodology for calculating bank provisions with the excuse that Cyprus was not following international practice. However practices vary from country to country to reflect local conditions, even within the generally harmonised environment of Europe. The real reason for this change was to force banks to book accounting losses immediately so that their capital position would appear worse than it was in reality.
The reason for impeding BoC from completing its recapitalisation before June 2012 also became evident. By forcing the bank to apply for state aid, the Central Bank could justify including BoC in an investigation by Alvarez & Marsal, a firm that was hired in order to investigate, supposedly, why the two big banks suffered losses and needed state support. It soon became apparent that the real aim was to damage the BoC. Systematic, selective leaks to the press, unprecedented in the history of the supervisory authority, targeted the bank.
Curiously, Laiki which indeed needed state support was essentially left out of the investigation, upon instructions from the Central Bank which were kept secret even from the House of Representatives, which had asked to be briefed on the matter in October 2012. Serious cases which had been pending and concerned certain problematic loans in Greece e.g. to the family of Michalis Sallas, Andreas Vgenopoulos and his associates were left outside the scope of the investigation.
I was aware of these pending cases because the said loans had come to the CBC’s attention following a prudential inspection before my term had ended. I had asked the then, new president of Laiki, Michalis Sarris, to pursue these cases even in court in order for the bank to be compensated. This was under way. Curiously, upon the removal of Sarris from Laiki, after my term ended, it seems that many of these investigations essentially froze. Only some of these resurfaced later, and this only happened after the March 2013 sale by the Central Bank of the Greek operations of Laiki to Bank of Piraeus, the bank controlled by Michalis Sallas.

Michalis Sarris when he was Laiki Bank chairman last year

Michalis Sarris when he was Laiki Bank chairman last year


On June 26, 2012, Cyprus became the first country in history whose Central Bank (the ECB, in other words) systematically did not accept its bonds as collateral for the provision of liquidity; the first and only country, because the ECB deemed the government completely untrustworthy. Greece, Ireland and Portugal did not experience anything similar. After this, the government was forced to call the troika for help.
It was already known that to meet the fiscal needs of the government Cyprus needed to borrow around 7-8 billion euros. AKEL faced a big dilemma – accept some political cost and properly negotiate a programme with the troika, or make every effort to reduce the political cost, regardless of the negative implications for the country. It was known, for example, that a long delay would be disastrous for the country.
The choice that was made is known. A challenge for AKEL was how to convince people that the banks were to blame for all ills of the country once it became known that the government needed 7-8 billion euros for its fiscal needs, whereas until April 2012 about €2 billion was sufficient for the capital needs of the banks. To achieve this AKEL needed help from the CBC. With its help, AKEL could at least claim that the capital “needs” of the banking system were bigger, perhaps as much as €10bn. The Central Bank could ensure that the calculations for the capital needs of the banks leading to the conclusion of the Memorandum of Understanding were suitably inflated.
Indeed, from the end of June onwards, even before any analysis was made, the number “10 billion” became a target. Leaks, when the troika arrived in Cyprus, made headline news on July 4, 2012 in daily Phileleftheros – the capital needs of the banks supposedly reached 10 billion. A simple addition of the fiscal and banking needs would suggest that the government would have to ask for support in the region of 17 to 18 billion euros. Basic knowledge of the IMF methodology for calculating debt sustainability suggested that this would make Cyprus’ debt unsustainable. And when the IMF considers the debt of a country seeking support as unsustainable, a haircut is imposed before approval of assistance. In this way, AKEL and the CBC introduced the haircut into bailout negotiations.
On that day I called Finance Minister Vassos Shiarly to make sure he knew the consequences. He immediately understood the issue and seemed to be concerned. Although he acknowledged that what the CBC was doing could lead to a haircut, he did not know whether he could influence developments, as the Central Bank was in direct consultation with AKEL and the presidential palace.
The inflated PIMCO numbers

Indeed, the Central Bank continued to implement its plan to inflate the apparent capital needs of the banking sector. In accordance with standard practice, the CBC hired an outside consultant to carry out the exercise. Guidance on the terms of reference of the audit would be given by a steering committee with members from the Central Bank, the finance ministry, other Cypriots and members of the troika. The committee would take decisions by consensus. Of key importance was the fact that the CBC would be chairing the committee. As long as decisions would be taken by consensus and the CBC was chairing the committee, this essentially meant that no decision could be taken if the CBC expressed strong disagreement. Since it is known that decisions on the methodology may alter the result by several billion euros, the work of this inconspicuous committee could in effect decide the future of the country. In other countries, the governor and top banking-supervision officials were personally involved in this work using the chairmanship of the committee to safeguard the interests of the country. In Cyprus, where an exaggeration of the capital needs would be catastrophic, only lower level officers from the CBC participated in the meetings, whereas the appointed chairman of the committee rarely attended the sessions due to other obligations.
In this manner, PIMCO, hired by the CBC and following the guidance of the steering committee that was chaired by the CBC, reached the inflated numbers. In order to inflate these sufficiently, it was necessary to change the methodology for the worse compared to similar audits that took place in other countries. One example is enough. The valuation of immovable property used as collateral for many loans are among the determining factors for the outcome. First there was an impairment based on a forecast on property prices’ decline over the next few years. In other countries, these discounted prices were used for the calculations. Perhaps because this did not sufficiently reduce the value of collateral (and thus did not inflate sufficiently the numbers for the capital needs of the banks) in the case of Cyprus a further 25 per cent of this value was deducted, automatically adding an extra 25 per cent in the relevant capital “needs”. The excuse given was that if someone were forced to make a forced sale the price would be lower than the value. An excuse that is contrary to international practice.
With its actions and guidance, the CBC added billions of euros to the calculations for the banks’ capital needs, but achieved the outcome AKEL wanted. The needs of the banks exceeded the fiscal needs of the government.
From PIMCO’s inflated numbers to the haircut of deposits

The coordinated propaganda by the AKEL government and the CBC managed to harm the image of Cyprus internationally. Cyprus is a very small country for a foreign investor to give much time or attention to. Since the government and the central bank, the two authorities which officially communicate with foreign governments, international organisations and others, suggested that Cyprus was facing a huge problem with insolvent banks, they had no reason to look into it. Inevitably, investors simply left.
Statements made in New York in December 2012 by the Central Bank governor, that banks in Cyprus engaged in “casino banking” had an impact. International newspapers adopted that position. For example, on 23 February, Wall Street Journal wrote: “The euro zone’s debt crises have come in two stripes. The problems of Greece and Portugal arose out of troubled government finances while those of Ireland and Spain derived from struggling banks. Cyprus falls into the latter category.”
The success of the AKEL-CBC strategy had another consequence: It convinced some of the stakeholders in the bailout negotiations that the best solution was to relieve the country of its “casino banks”. This solution politically suited EU governments which did not want to incur any political cost from being seen as helping suspicious banks or suspicious depositors. For the German government, in particular, the delay in the Cypriot programme brought it very close to the German elections with the chancellor facing terrible problems if she agreed to a loan that would finance Cypriot banks as happened in other countries, particularly after the publication of allegations about Russian money laundering in Cyprus.
In this environment, it was preferable for the recapitalisation of banks in Cyprus to also include “internal measures” i.e. haircut of deposits, bonds and securities. And the CBC showed that it agreed with this. It was understood that the implementation of these plans would effectively destroy the banking system in Cyprus, with a huge cost to the country. Other stakeholders could justify this outcome by adopting the position of the Cypriot authorities that the root of the problems in Cyprus was “casino banking”.
Since the Cypriot authorities had ‘proved’ that the debt of the Republic was unsustainable, a haircut became necessary. Since the authorities of Cyprus had ‘proved’ that Cyprus’ banking model was unsustainable, the best solution was a haircut of deposits. In this way, AKEL and the CBC managed to bring a haircut of deposits into the bailout discussions.
The matter was essentially settled before the presidential elections in February. A report by the Dutch ministry of finance on the Eurogroup of January 21, 2013, noted that the analysis for the financing of Cyprus had reached the final stage. It was at this meeting that it was also agreed that the final signature for the MoU negotiated by the AKEL government and the CBC would take place in March, immediately after the elections in Cyprus, since – due to delays by the AKEL government and the CBC – those elections were now just a few weeks away.
Leaks about the haircut on deposits occurred frequently in the international press. On January 24, according to the Wall Street Journal “Rescue loans could be reduced and the Cypriot debt left more sustainable if some depositors were bailed in … in other words, some depositors wouldn’t get all their money back.” On February 21, the Financial Times took the view that “Writing down senior creditors — even uninsured deposits — is the best way to go.”
It had become clear by then that the government and the CBC had ensured a programme for Cyprus that included some kind of deposit haircut and subsequent destruction of the banking system. What was left was to decide on the exact type of haircut.
In Cyprus, the first official reference to the haircut which was to be imposed was made by AKEL’s general secretary on February 8, 2013. In a TV interview Andros Kyprianou, noted that the Cypriot side is under pressure to agree that depositors also contribute to meet the banks’ capital needs. Even then, the concern for AKEL was to avoid the political cost.
Consequences of the inflated PIMCO numbers
The consequences of the inflated PIMCO numbers were clear before the end of the year. This was the reason behind public interventions I made in Cyprus in December 2012. At a meeting arranged by Sarris with Minister of Finance Vassos Shiarly on December 30, I explained to Shiarly that as a consequence of the exaggerated capital needs that the CBC had achieved through PIMCO, a haircut of deposits had already become the preferred solution of some other governments.
I urged him to intervene so that the CBC would insist on a correction of the methodology which had added billions in the calculations and created the problem, irrespective of whether this suited AKEL.

pic for orphanides story in text - Vassos Shiarly (left) with present CB governor Panicos Demetriades

pic for orphanides story in text – Vassos Shiarly (left) with present CB governor Panicos Demetriades


The CBC should have had a leading role in protecting, not damaging, the financial sector in Cyprus. The CBC was in control of the procedure of giving guidance to PIMCO and could have the influenced the results. Only the CBC could intervene at that point to stop the crime against the country.
Unfortunately the correction did not take place. Instead, in light of the fact that the consequences for the country were becoming clear, there was an attempt by the CBC to deny its huge responsibilities. The crucial role of the CBC (through the steering committee) for the methodology and assumptions used by PIMCO was revealed in a letter sent by PIMCO to the CBC, responding to an attempt by the latter to blame the inflated numbers on PIMCO. As noted in the introductory paragraph: “PIMCO has prepared responses to the 16 points you raised in your letter dated 1 February 2013. We also note where assumptions that have been described as PIMCO inputs in your letter were, in fact, direct inputs from the Steering Committee.”
Accepting the PIMCO outcome created a remarkable inconsistency, also for the CBC itself. Acceptance of the PIMCO results by the CBC rendered Laiki Bank clearly insolvent. At least since the end of November when PIMCO delivered its analysis, if not earlier, Laiki should have been deemed insolvent. At the same time, as it was later confirmed, the CBC was granting ELA (Emergency Liquidity Assistance) to Laiki. But the provision of ELA to an insolvent credit institution constitutes a serious breach of the legal framework of central banks within the eurozone. How can this be explained? Was Laiki both solvent and insolvent according to expediency? Was this inconsistency necessary so that the CBC could at the same time achieve the exaggerated capital needs for the banking sector, but also avoid creating election problems for AKEL by taking the necessary actions to deal with an insolvent bank?
The inflation of the PIMCO numbers had many predictable negative consequences. Together with the excessive powers which were, improperly in my view, given by Parliament to the CBC on March 22, 2013, the inflated PIMCO numbers were used for the diversion of wealth worth billions of euros from the legal owners in Cyprus to interests outside Cyprus. The inflated numbers essentially determined how much property the CBC could transfer from the rightful owners to others via a “sale” of the assets of the banks.
In particular, for the shareholders, bond holders and depositors of Bank of Cyprus, in my view the sale of the branches in Greece, which was agreed and signed by the CBC without the consent of the legal owners is problematic and amounts to theft. A theft of billions of euro. A statement, in an action now pending before the courts, that the CBC decided that Bank of Cyprus was a credit institution which had to be resolved on the basis of the PIMCO results, before these results were even disclosed to Bank of Cyprus or its board of directors, raises many questions.
The PIMCO-inflated numbers led also to the destruction of the co-operative sector. The CBC could not opt for significantly different methodologies for the banks and the co-ops in order to avoid inflating the needs of the co-op sector. As a result, the war against the banks, especially against Bank of Cyprus, had as collateral damage the co-op sector.
More broadly, however, the inflated-PIMCO results have essentially led to the destruction of the country’s economic model. It will take many years to rebuild the economy after the tsunami of the last five years. This is what leads to my pessimistic prediction that the blow to the economy may prove worse than the one suffered in 1974.
I hope that this time subsequent facts prove me wrong.
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Russian nominees for bank board

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Vladimir Strzhalkovskiy

THE MOSCOW Times, a daily Russian English language newspaper, has taken a closer look into the Russian names due to compete for a place on the Bank of Cyprus’ (BoC) board of directors.

The Bank of Cyprus published the names of 49 nominees including seven Russian nationals earlier this week.

The Russian nominees “are among the customers most affected by the financial crisis that devastated the Cypriot banking system earlier this year,” the Moscow Times said referring to a €10 billion bailout deal in March which forced Cyprus to shut down its second largest bank and force major losses on the big depositors of its biggest lender.

The BoC is due to hold an annual general meeting (AGM) this Tuesday.

The Moscow Times said Vladimir Strzhalkovskiy, nominated by Bolestone Trading Ltd was “the most familiar name among Russian nominees”. A former Norilsk Nickel CEO and former KGB colleague of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Strzhalkovskiy “may still have about $10 million [about €7.6 million euro] in the bank,” the Moscow Times said.

Anjelica Anshakova and Dmitry Chichikashvili have been nominated by Scordis, Papapetrou & Co. Erishkan Kurazov and Anton Smetanin have been nominated by Christodoulos Vassiliades & Co. Both nominators offer an array of corporate and commercial legal services and have offices in Moscow.

The two other Russian nominees are the Deutsche Bank’s vice chairman for Eastern Europe Igor Lojevsky nominated by George Tsielepis, and Vladimir Sidorov, who has been nominated by MCRS Ltd and who works as a deputy director of department for Vnesheconombank, a Russian state company.

Under a decision in March to bail in Cyprus’ two largest lenders, BoC and Laiki bank, losses were imposed on large savers in both banks. Laiki is being resolved, with all of its liabilities and some of its assets folded into BoC. The BoC has been recapitalised by seizing large savers’ cash via a deposit-for-equity swap. The BoC’s creditors now form the new shareholder base, at the expense of the old shareholders whose stake has been reduced to less than 1.0 per cent the BoC’s share capital.

Laiki has been allocated about 18 per cent share capital with those shares to be sold some time in the future, with the money going to the former Laiki’s uninsured depositors. The former Laiki has become BoC’s biggest shareholder, and is the only shareholder with more than 5.0 per cent share capital in the BoC. But Russian and Ukrainian depositors represented by various Cypriot law firms collectively hold about 12 per cent.

Trying to counter the 18 per cent held by the so-called legacy Laiki creditors and the 12 per cent by Russians and Ukrainian, Archbishop Chrysostomos has also moved in to convince thousands of small BoC shareholders to give the Archbishopric a proxy to represent them in the AGM.

 

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