This quote from Bloomberg,
“In particular, Russian deposits in Cypriot banks have been criticized across the political spectrum in Germany.
“Money from German taxpayers won’t be used to secure Russian deposits of illegal money,” the SPD’s Schneider was quoted by Bild newspaper as saying on Dec. 21. The CDU deputy leader Fuchs told BBC Radio 4 that “one has to ask a question: why there is so much Greek and Russian money in Cyprus?””
There is only one logical explanation why the Cyprus government decided to haircut their banking depositors who thought they had insurance for deposits under 100,000 euros. They didn’t dare risk the ire of the Russian mob who is using Cyprus to launder money. Why else? The ECB suggested that they haircut only the depositors over 100,000 but the Cyprus government was afraid if they did that they would have to haircut their Russian friends too much. Can you blame them? Would you want to stiff the Russian mob?