Cyprus: Communists ask Russia for financial advice

Guy Norton

August 06, 2008

Cypriot finance minister Charilaos Stavrakis wants to cement his country’s role as a centre of capitalism.

We interpreted comments made by the Cypriot finance minister that suggested the country was seeking financial advice from Russia. We accept that the finance ministry holds regular talks with a number of counterparts and that this interpretation was misleading.

It is like a story from a magical realist film on the world after 1989. A finance minister chosen by the European Union’s first communist head of state looks to Russia – to try to resurrect his country’s position as an offshore centre of capitalism. The minister is even trying to persuade hedge fund managers who have been scared of tax changes in the UK to relocate to his country.

Charilaos Stavrakis: changing wrong ideas

"At the beginning there were some unjustifiable concerns that things would be different under the new government. Our first priority was to change these wrong ideas," Charilaos Stavrakis, finance minister of Cyprus, tells Euromoney. Stavrakis was chosen by president Demetris Christofias after Christofias’s Cypriot communist party won elections earlier this year. "The whole administration, including myself, gave particular emphasis to our commitment to maintain and strengthen the position of Cyprus as an international business centre," says Stavrakis.