Cyprus second investor in Moscow

CYPRUS is the second biggest global direct investor in Moscow, and the fourth biggest in the Russian Federation as a whole.

Georgi Muratov, Director of the International Relations Department of the

Government of Moscow and former ambassador to Cyprus, told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA) that Cyprus was second only to Germany in direct investments in Moscow, while in the Russian federation in general, the island followed the US, Germany and France.

Muratov said that 89 per cent of Cypriot investment in Russia was direct, while only 12 per cent of French investments were direct.

The Russian official attributed Cyprus’ high position in the investment sector to the sound legal agreements existing between Cyprus and Russia and the “long traditional and friendly relations between the two peoples”.

He said some 500 companies, either Cypriot-owned or Cyprus-based offshore companies, operated in the Russian capital.

Muratov told CNA that trade transactions between Cyprus and Moscow reached million last year. In the first half of 2000, they amounted to million.

“Cypriots are very active in Moscow. Many of them are now participating in international competitions organised by the government of Moscow for building 20 to 30 three-star hotels in Moscow, as part of a campaign to attract tourists to the Russian capital,” Muratov added.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.