The World Post quotes Dinu Patriciu Eurasia Center Resident Senior Fellow Anders Aslund on the issues within the world’s globalized financial structure:
“This report shows that there is no rule of law there,” said Anders Aslund, a Swedish economist and former adviser to Ukraine and Russia. “A Russian bank is located abroad because money is not safe in a Russian bank.”
Cyprus has tax treaties with Russia and Ukraine that allow tax free transactions there, he said.
When the Cypriot banking system collapsed two years ago, banks were full of cash from Russia and Ukraine, including state officials. “I heard that Ukraine’s state prosecutors were especially hard hit,” he said.
Since then, other banking systems are used, but the volume remains high. Anders estimated that private Russian assets abroad totaled US$700 billion (up to 20 per cent of its economy) and of this up to $200 billion by government officials.