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The Mediterranean island of Cyprus has long been a prize contested by empires, where peoples, religions — and wealth — converge.
For decades, Moscow has cast a shadow over the tiny country, where free-flowing Russian money has enriched a few while fueling a rogue financial system, operating inside the European Union and beyond.
“When the Russians came to Cyprus, they brought not only Russian corruption, they brought Russian organized crime, they brought Russian agents of the Russian intelligence services,” one Kremlin critic told ICIJ.
Cyprus Confidential, a new investigation by ICIJ, Paper Trail Media and 67 media partners worldwide, reveals Cyprus’ pivotal role in shielding the wealth of oligarchs and powering the Putin regime, including after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
As the West sought to block funding for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war machine, financial enablers in Cyprus — including accounting powerhouse PwC — scrambled to keep his allies a step ahead of looming sanctions.
And it’s not only Russians who’ve exploited Cyprus’ booming financial secrecy industry to undermine Western democracy.
ICIJ’s analysis of 3.6 million leaked documents uncovered a secret bid by the Assad regime to buy forbidden U.S. oil equipment through a Cyprus-based middleman at the height of the Syrian civil war.
Meanwhile, ICIJ’s partners found that a famous German journalist known for his fawning coverage of Putin agreed to receive around $700,000 from a shell company tied to a Russian oligarch.
Cyprus Confidential is based on seven separate leaks, predominantly from Cypriot financial services firms whose clients include former Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich and the steel tycoons behind Evraz, a Russian conglomerate that makes the train rails transporting arms and ammunition to Russia’s troops in Ukraine.
The documents read like a who’s who of Russia’s elite — roughly two-thirds of the country’s billionaires appear in the files, including dozens who’ve been sanctioned.
Stay tuned for more Cyprus Confidential stories from ICIJ and our partners in the coming days and weeks.
Thanks for reading!
Joanna Robin
ICIJ’s digital editor
P.S. Investigations like Cyprus Confidential would not be possible without the generous support of ICIJ’s donors. Please join our community of supporters.
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