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Inside Cyprus’ efforts to stem money laundering and sanctions evasion
By 
Aaron Nicodemus2025-01-28T15:35:00
Are there success stories in the international fight against money laundering and sanctions evasion? The island nation of Cyprus is making its case.
Cyprus has long been a hub of financial connections for Russian and Ukrainian oligarchs seeking to avoid western sanctions and anti-money laundering (AML) rules. A 2023 investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Cyprus Confidential, found that Cyprus-Russia financial connections persist, even after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
But Cyprus has made significant progress in decoupling itself from its Russian/Ukrainian/Belorussian customer base. According to the Association of Cyprus Banks (ACB), inward transfers of funds in all currencies to Cypriot banks from those three countries fell from 40 billion euros in 2014 to 1.5 billion euros in 2023, while outward transfers have similarly fallen from 32 billion to one billion euros. Similar declines have occurred in transfers with customers in countries including Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Moldova, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Armenia, and Kyrgyzstan.
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