Comedy Club's advice on how to use Belarus to bypass Cyprus laws

• 8.04.2013, 14:13

Participants of a popular stand-up comedy TV show gave helpful tips to the Russian oligarchs whose accounts were frozen in Cyprus.

One of the tricks was to transfer money to an account in Prague and then to Belarus and withdraw cash. Comedians say the method works for residents of the European Union.

Another variant is using Raiffeisen Bank and CommerzBank, which were involved in several scandals over their activity in Belarus.

Raiffeisen Bank is an official sponsor of the Ice Hockey World Championship that will be held in Minsk in 2014. International organisations, politicians and human rights groups demand to move the championship to another country due to ongoing repressions in Belarus. Members of the European Parliament collect signatures for an appeal to the championship's sponsors.

German CommerzBank earlier cooperated with Belarusian Trustbank (former Infobank), which was hit by sanctions of the US Treasury Department over accusations of money laundering for the Iraqi dictator.

Cyprus imposed restrictions on transactions inside the country and transfers abroad in late March.

Russian politologist Andrei Suzdaltsev thinks that Cyprus, as well as Austria, Cuba and some Arab countries, is among the states, where Belarusian oligarchs and the dictator's “family” keep their money. He claims they keep up to 800 million dollars in Cyprus. This is the money from frauds with Russian oil and energy and kickbacks from the potash business.