"But the EU's own bailout entrenched Russia's position in the Cypriot financial system, when it forced Russian and other savers to convert 47.5 percent of all deposits above €100,000 into bank shares in what was called a 'bail-in.'

"The EU unintentionally handed over Bank of Cyprus [to the Russians]," Demetriades said.

"They thought they were cleaning up Cyprus from dirty money, but now it looks like they made things worse," he said.

The effect of the bailout was "very ironic, almost surrealistic," Michel Koutouzis, a French criminologist, who previously worked for the EU and UN, also told EUobserver.

"It made Russian capital stronger because Cypriot banks now needed that money more than ever," he said.

That, in turn, gave Russian oligarchs the power to call the shots, he added. "'If you don't do as I say, then tomorrow I'll withdraw a billion, or two billion, from your bank' - that's how it works," Koutouzis said."

https://euobserver.com/justice/142920