Besides the largest yacht in the world, the English soccer club Chelsea and a private Boeing 767 Roman Abramovich could have owned also something really small but beautiful: a Cypriot citizenship. Cyprus likes to thank big investors with a passport - after all, an EU passport. But Abramovich let his partner go first and so Alexander Abramov became a Cypriot for his services to the island in 2010. Abramovich & Abramov have brought Cyprus in fact a lot: They keep their shares of the international steel giant “Evraz” via investment firm "Lanebrook Limited", which was founded in 2006 in Cyprus.

Investments and financial interests of Russians in Cyprus are suddenly central to the euro crisis. Russians have allegedly invested 23 billion Euros in Cyprus, at least according to research by the German Federal Intelligence Service BND, whose information was published last fall by the news magazine "Der Spiegel". The reason: Cyprus offers Russian investors with a low ten percent tax. Many Russians park their money in Cyprus and reinvest it in Russia. Thus - according to figures from the "Central Bank of Russia" - the small Cyprus with 880.000 inhabitants is the country from which the majority of foreign investments in Russia are being made.

"If the Cyprus Attorney General's Office had taken the accusations of money laundering seriously, then there would not be this mess now," says Bill Browder to "profil". The Germans are tired to finance "dubious Russian businesses with their tax money," says the head of the London-based investment fund "Hermitage Capital" who has repeatedly called for an investigation into money laundering in Cyprus. Browder claims that 24 million Euro of a very specific case were flushed through Cypriot accounts.

Corrupt officials of the Russian Interior Ministry had acquired the company stamp of Browder's Russian companies in 2007, registered themselves as owner and then claimed, the Company had paid 180 million Euro too much in taxes. They demanded repayment. In agreement with the head of the tax authority the deal was approved and the oney paid to them. The Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitzky who exposed the scam was arrested and died in a Moscow prison in 2009. The stolen funds were distributed to accounts in different countries. A portion allegedly went through Vienna. An investigation has been closed. Another part landed short in Cyprus: 24 million Euro. There, too, the investigation was closed down. The long-term consequence of this lack of interest in dubious money flows lead, Browder believes, to the harsh conditions of the EU towards the Cypriot banks.

Since Berlin last week had rejected any further compromise, the Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris flew on a begging tour to Moscow. The Russians also made him squirm. President Vladimir Putin probably enjoys being called to help when "Euro-Bolshevism" fails – as some Russians like to call Common European Monetary Policy. But this time the Russian government declined to help with a special credit of two and a half billion dollars as it did in 2011. This credit can not be repaid and Cyprus has already asked for better conditions. If anything Russia would like to get paid in natural resources this time.

Russian state giant Gazprom is eyeing the newly discovered gas reserves next to Cyprus. They are, however, controversial as Turkey claims ownership, too. Russia could have another interest in buying into the island: Till now the only Russian military base in the Mediterranean is in Tartus in Syria. It could soon turn into an uncomfortable place for Russians, when the regime of Bashar al-Assad falls. The Russian fleet could be moved over to Lanarca or Limassol. In "Limassolgrad" as the city is often called today because of its many Russian citizens, Putin's sailors would feel right at home.