Cyprus ATMs Low On Cash, Credit Card Payments Refused; Medvedev Compares Europe To USSR

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/20/2013 18:26 -0400

Since we don't believe in miracles, our money is increasingly on the latter. This sentiment is further reinforced by former Russian president, current Prime Minister, and Putin mouthpiece, Dmitry Medvedev, who said that what Europe has done is nothing shy of what the USSR used to do in its attempt to destroy faith in private property, and thus, capitalism.

From the FT and Reuters:

Mr Medvedev said the EU and Cyprus had acted “like an elephant in a China shop”.

“All possible mistakes that could be made have been made by them,” he added.

"We are living in the 21st century, under market economic conditions. Everybody has been insisting that ownership rights should be respected.”

Mr Medvedev also criticised the decision to freeze the Cypriot banking system, and not just withdrawals from troubled banks, warning that if this continued for any length of time it could “result in losses . . . even bury the whole banking sector of Cyprus. It will cease to exist,” he said.

...

The proposed bank levy, rejected by the Cypriot parliament on Tuesday, had a "clearly confiscatory, expropriating character," RIA quoted him as saying - remarks that echo earlier criticism by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

It was, Medvedev said, "absolutely unprecedented". 

"I can only compare it some of the decisions taken ... by Soviet authorities, who did not give a thought to the savings of the population."

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