Government accounts blocked in Cyprus, complains Russia

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev complained on Thursday that accounts of Russian government agencies in Cyprus had been blocked as Cypriot Finance Minister Michalis Sarris was set to resume talks in Moscow to secure aid.In comments released early Thursday, Medvedev warned that Russia would take a “firm” stand on Cyprus because the accounts of government structures had been blocked on the island.“A large number of our open public structures work through Cyprus. They now have money blocked for reasons that are unclear, because the source of that money is obvious. This money is declared everywhere. These include government structures,” Medvedev said in an interview published early Thursday on the Russian government website.“That's why we have to take quite a firm position on the events around Cyprus and regulating the debt of Cyprus,” he said.Sarris was expected to continue talks Thursday after holding meetings with his Russian counterpart Anton Siluanov and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov on Wednesday that failed to produce tangible results as Russia sought lucractive assets in exchange for more help.The head of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, was also set to begin talks with Medvedev on Thursday, with Cyprus to top the agenda.Sarris has vowed to stay in Moscow until some agreement is reached that could help his country's banks avoid bankruptcy and the island from going into default.The Cypriot finance minister also hopes to ease the terms of a 2.5-billion-euro ($3.2-billion) loan that Moscow afforded Nicosia in 2011 and which matures in 2016.A spokesman for the Russian finance ministry said on Thursday morning that he could not comment on what talks were planned.Officials familiar with Wednesday's talks were cited by Vedomosti business daily as saying there were no concrete results and that Cyprus did not make any offers to Russia that were immediately attractive, although Russia was analysing them.The chief executive of Russia's largest lender, Sberbank, German Gref, told Prime news agency late Wednesday that Cyprus had offered it the opportunity to acquire a Cypriot bank but that Sberbank “did not express interest.”