Forget the gas. In the mean time Mr Dijsselboom from the European Sowjet Union said it very clearly that Cyprus will be a template for all other countries. Meaning if you have more than 100,000 in the bank get used to the idea that money is not yours but can be taken away by the Bruxelles Sowjets whenever they consider it appropriate.

Watch the flow of money in the next days ...

It sickened me to read this article. It shows human greed at its worst. The Predators circle and try to divide up the spoils which will make the mega-rich even richer. Who gives a stuff about Climate Change?

No one, it seems. Just extract the fossil fuels and use them like there is no tomorrow (which could well be) and who gives a damn about the environment or future generations.

Human are pathetic. To label them as pigs is to insult all pigs.

Leeches are more closely related to humans.

Actually Renysol, Mr Dijsselbloem resiled from his comments the following day. It is extremely doubtful in any case that a government can impose a levy on savings whatever it might purport to do. There would inevitably be a legal challenge in the European courts and I wouldn't want to bet on the government.

As the article notes however, there are major geopolitical considerations at play here, including, but not limited to, Russia's ambitions to have a mediterranean naval base given that their Syrian base is uncertain; the desire by the EU to lessen Russia's grip on their gas supplies and hence a strong motivation to keep the Russians out of their growing grip on Cyprus; the competing interests of at least six countries in the Levant basin where the EEZ overlaps; and the Israeli desire to deny Palestine an economic resource.

There are other factors as well, but the picture is clear. This is not just about the failure of the Cyprus Central Bank to properly control the other banks. The amount of money at stake is trifling. The Cyprus banks have about 68 billion Euros on deposit, which is a lot for a country of less than 1 million people. As always there is a lot more to this than the msm would let us know about.

James, as the banks had lost almost all their assets the depositors
had already lost their money.
What they were being offered was 60% of their money and some shares
in the bank that you would not buy in a fit !

The gas will have a ready market, but it would take six or seven years before any income.

David G
Oh grow up, the pensioners in the UK would be very pleased to see the
Mediterranean gas flowing into the UK instead of the hand to mouth Russian gas.

James,
The reason that the government has seized the depositors money is
because at the 2010 G20 meeting the members signed an agreement that
they could seize all assets of shareholders, depositors, bondholders
etc etc. Australia I believe, but cannot confirm, signed up to this
way of getting money to give to the banks.