Deputy Minister for European Affairs Marilena Raouna said that Cyprus has "completely turned the page" on Russian money in an interview with French, state-owned site France24 that took place on the sidelines of the European Council meeting in Brussels.
With the author describing it as “a jam-packed EU summit in Brussels on 23 October, dominated by the thorny issue of using frozen Russian assets”, with state leaders haggling over how to turn the Russian assets into a “reparation loan” to help Ukraine, he added that Ukraine is not the only country concerned by the issue. Cyprus has frozen €1.2 billion in Russian assets.
Raouna told the site that Cyprus has “completely turned the page” on Russian money flowing through the country and that supporting Ukraine will be a “top priority” when Cyprus assumes the rotating EU presidency in January 2026.
Cyprus’ historically close links with Russia notwithstanding, Raouna pledges that the Cypriot EU presidency will “take an approach of unequivocal, steadfast support for Ukraine on all fronts – political, economic and humanitarian. This is about defending core European principles, including territorial integrity and sovereignty. Cyprus is a member state of the European Union that has part of its territory under occupation by Turkey. We know first-hand what it means to have territorial integrity violated. So this will be a top priority for the Cyprus presidency,” she asserts.
On the question of using frozen Russian assets to aid Ukraine – the issue that dominated the EU summit – Raouna says: “There is broad support for the need to continue supporting Ukraine financially and in its defence capabilities. One of the proposals being discussed in this context is the use of the frozen Russian assets. The point we are making is that we need to ensure these proposals are legally sound, and that they are financially and economically viable for all member states.” In the event, EU leaders did not achieve a breakthrough on the issue and will revisit it at the next summit.
Cyprus itself has frozen more than a billion euros in Russian assets. Raouna insists, however, that the island does not deserve the “Moscow on the Mediterranean” epithet that the media has sometimes used in reference to Russian money on the island.
“There is very clear evidence that Cyprus has completely turned the page in that regard,” she states. “There are independent reports that verify this. President Christodoulides took very concrete steps when he assumed office a little over two and a half years ago. He invited a law enforcement team from the FBI to join our own teams. We have been steadfast in our support of the 19 sanctions packages, and our economy has done away completely with any Russian capital. If anything, we now have a very strong presence of American companies in Cyprus.”
Being something of a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, Cyprus has been an active player in diplomacy on Gaza, and it intends to keep Gaza high on the agenda during its EU presidency.
“When the war in Gaza started, we put forward the Cyprus Maritime Corridor, a humanitarian corridor which was supported by the European Union and by the United Arab Emirates, together with our partners in the region and with Israel. And this corridor is still ongoing,” Raouna says. “We’ve also put forward a six-point plan, which corresponds to a number of points in President Trump’s 20-point plan. We want to facilitate and advance its implementation, and we are now in the crucial initial phase. This is about the EU increasing its footprint in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, because these regions are inextricably linked with the security of the European Union.”
(Source: France24)
