Cyprus Boosts Moscow as City Sees Investor Cash Returning

Moscow is counting on changing perceptions of Cyprus as a haven for Russian companies and investors to help fulfill its goal of becoming a global financial center, according to a minister in the city’s government.

“It’s totally changed the perception of Cyprus and it’s a good thing for Russia,” Sergey Cheremin, head of Moscow’s department for economic and international relations, said in an interview at Bloomberg’s headquarters in New York yesterday. “It shows those Russians who keep their accounts in Cyprus that it’s not a heaven, it’s a hell. It will encourage a lot of Russian companies to concentrate their resources in Moscow.”