Cyprus promised on Tuesday to investigate alleged violations of sanctions against Moscow, revealed by an investigation by an international consortium of journalists that the Mediterranean island was a hub of Russian money laundering.
According to an investigation carried out by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and 67 partner media, including Le Soir, published on Tuesday, Cyprus “plays an even more important role compared to what was generally known in the transfer of money “dirty work on behalf of Russian President Vladimir Putin and other dictators.”
The Consortium claims to have examined confidential documents covering the period from the mid-1990s until April 2022 and including organizational charts, financial statements, bank account applications and emails.
These documents “provide in-depth insight into the crooked financial system that helped empower some of the West’s most determined enemies,” says the investigation, titled, in English, “Cyprus Confidential.”
“Everything that has been revealed will be investigated and no one is above the reputation of our country,” responded President Nikos Christodoulides.
“All the information that has been revealed will be investigated within a specific time frame (…) The reputation of our country, the credibility of our country (…) is crucial,” he told journalists .
Cyprus, a member of the European Union, is regularly singled out as a refuge for Russian oligarchs to launder their money and circumvent European and American sanctions imposed on Moscow.
This article is originally published on msn.com
