Medvedev Quotes Lenin While Speaking Against the Cyprus Bailout Deal

The Russian prime minister is not
happy about the Cyprus bailout deal. At a meeting with deputies
Dmitry Medvedev invoked a phrase of Lenin’s in reference to the new
agreement. From The
Telegraph:

Meeting deputies at his residence outside the city, Russia’s
Prime Minister said there was a need to “understand what this story
turns into in the long run, what the consequences for the
international financial and monetary system will be - and thus, for
our own interests as well.”
Mr Medvedev prefaced his comments by addressing Deputy Prime
Minister, Igor Shuvalov, with the words: “Let us, Igor Ivanovich,
talk about what’s happening with Cyprus. The stealing of the stolen
is continuing there, I think.”
The seemingly clumsy phrase was in fact a sharp reference to a
quote attributable to Vladimir Lenin, who used it to justify the
confiscation of capitalists’ property.

Russians with large deposits in Cypriot banks will be especially
hard hit by the recent Cyprus
bailout deal. The deal guarantees deposits of under 100,000
euros. However, deposits worth more than 100,000 euros will be
affected, with perhaps as much as 30 percent of the
deposits being taken to
pay for the bailout. The new deal includes a restructuring of
Cyprus’ banking sector, with the country’s second largest bank
having deposits below 100,000 euros being moved to the Bank of
Cyprus and deposits of over 100,000 euros being moved into a “bad
bank.”
Under the original deal all accounts in Cypriot banks would have
been affected. However, the Cypriot government
rejected that deal.
Russians have about
20 billion euros in Cypriot banks, a substantial amount of
which will be used by the Cypriot government to raise the amount
necessary to secure a 10 billion euro bailout.
Medvedev has touched upon Russian history before while
discussing the Cyprus crisis, having earlier said that the E.U. was
behaving like the
Soviet Union. Unfortunately for Russian citizens with more than
100,000 euros in Cypriot banks it looks like they will be
unwillingly contributing to the latest chapter of the euro
crisis.