Window on Eurasia's Paul Goble linked to and summarized a Russian-language article on the position and history of Cyprus' large Russophone community.

In an article on Rosbalt.ru, Tatyana Khrulyeva surveys the rise and what she sees as the potential fall of this community. According to the 2011 Cyprus census, there were only 8164 Russian citizens ( Read more... )

Via Nicholas Whyte I came across Peter Birks' account of what is--at best--remarkable incompetence on the part of the Cypriot financial sector in buying up Greek sovereign debt, aggravated likely by some guilty knowledge on someone's part. (This Reuters article goes into more detail.)

By April 2010 Bank of Cyprus had €2.4bn worth of Greek ( Read more... )

• Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling is skeptical that plans to archive vast quantities of archived data accumulated over decades, even centuries, are going to be viable.
• The Burgh Diaspora notes that for southern Europeans, Latin America is once again emerging as a destination--this time, the migration is of professionals seeking opportunities they ( Read more... )

Yuri M. Zhukov's Foreign Affairs article makes the argument that Russian chose not to bailout Cyprus because, among other reasons, the Russian government wanted to stop the offshoring of Russian business and other funds. Allowing the biggest Russian offshore financial sector to collapse while other countries are loath to take on the Cypriot role ( Read more... )

In a column published at Transitions Online, Martin Ehl argued that Latvia, with its Russian-oriented banking sector and on the eve of accession to the Eurozone, isn't on the verge of becoming the next Cyprus. Briefly, banking isn't important enough to the Latvian economy and the relevant Latvian and European authorities are keeping close watch.

( Read more... )

• Behind the Numbers' Carl Haub notes that most of the recent fall in American fertility is a consequence of falling Mexican-American fertility, with fertility in other groups remaining stable.
• Daniel Drezner is upset that, according to its star Brad Pitt, the film version of World War Z will minimize the international politics of the anti-zombie war ( Read more... )

• Bag News Notes examines the use of a stock photo of some Dutch immigrant youths to illustrate a variety of different alarming articles.
• Crasstalk's Maxichamp introduces readers to the Port Chicago disaster during the Second World War, which incidentally led to a notable civil rights case.
• Daniel Drezner didn't find many surprises with the terms of ( Read more... )

Miriam Elder's Guardian article talks about the effects of the Cypriot crisis on Russians invested in the country, a fairly broad cross-section of people.

They clustered in small groups on the plush couches dotted around the lounge of the Four Seasons hotel in the port city of Limassol. Nervous whispers and furtive glances revealed these were no ( Read more... )

If, as CNBC's Robert Frank suggests, tax havens around the world are going to start shaking as the Cyprus meltdown continues, I'd call this a good thing. Taking use of loopholes in the globalized financial system to evade a nation-state's taxes doesn't strike me as something viable in the long run, not economically and not politically (as we're ( Read more... )

The Christian Science Monitor's Robert Marquand writes at length about the latest developments in the Cypriot phase of the Eurozone crisis.

Cyprus is today looking at a “Plan B” to save itself from a catastrophic banking default, though it appears that hopes for an immediate loan from Moscow, explored by Cypriot officials today, will not be ( Read more... )