World Press on Russia's Role in Cypriot Financial Crisis (March 26, 2013)

The Washington Post published an aticle by Max Fisher headlined 'A bailout for Cyprus, a geopolitical failure for Russia.'

"Cyprus and the European Union have reached a bailout deal for the tiny and troubled euro-zone economy. That’s good news for Cyprus (even if the deal turns out to be bad, at least it’s an end to the uncertainty) and good news for the European Union. But the resolution of the entire Cyprus bailout saga, in the terms described, would be bad news for Russia: it would signal a failed bid by Moscow to reassert some of its once-vast power in Europe and to stand up as an alternative to the European Union," the article reads.

According to the author Russia did not use its chance to increase its role in the European economy.

"In the deal reached today, depositors who have over $130,000 in Cypriot banks — many of these are the Russian oligarchs sheltering their money in Cyprus — are going to lose even more of their money than it looked like they were going to before last week’s stand-off. Some of them will lose all of their money. Cyprus, as a nation, would become more beholden to the E.U. — and, as a result, relatively less beholden to Russia, which would have fewer interests in the country, anyway," the author writes.

According to Fisher, Russia's approach appears to have only pushed Cyprus further toward Europe.

"That’s a lesson, incidentally, that Russia might also be learning in the Middle East, where it can send as many guns as it wants to its reliable ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but it can’t overturn the Arab Spring," he concludes.