The EU, Russia and Cyprus

Abstract

In recent years, Russian-Cypriot relations have been a very topical issue among EU politicians, scholars and journalists dealing with international relations of Russia, South-eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Through this deep interest many unknown parameters of the topic have been illuminated. Nevertheless, most of the analyses followed a certain pattern that did not always dovetail with reality. Although Cyprus has possessed an exceptional place in the Russian foreign policy, Russia’s interest in the Cypriot economic and political affairs, however, have been in some cases overrated. As a result, for various geo-political and geo-economic reasons the island has been dragged into the EU-Russia political and economic troubled NATO-EU-Russia relationship of the last decade and paid a high tribute for it. Against this background, it is argued that the Eurogroup’s decisions regarding the Cypriot banks in March 2013 were groundless and false and eventually backfired on the goals they intended to achieve. The article also counter-argues the opinion that Moscow is interested in the EastMed gas reserves because of their value in the EU-energy supply diversification policy. Russian companies do not seem to oppose the various projects aimed at exploiting EastMed resources, as they do not view East Med gas as a threat to their economic interests.