EU thieves being bested by Russian thieves in Cyprus. UPDATED

While the front door of the banks is locked in Cyprus, money is flying out the back door.  ZeroHedge discovered  the London branches of two big Cyprean banks remain open and permit unlimited withdrawals.  Since 20% of deposits came from Russia, I'm convinced that Russian money is heading out the back door.  Cyprus won't have to worry about angry oligarchs or mafia types.

Link 1:  Have the Russians already quietly withdrawn all their cash from Cyprus?

            Sourced from Reuters via ZeroHedge.  

            Second source:  "But unlike Cypriot banks, which have placed a €100-per-day on ATM withdrawals, a Laiki Bank spokesperson said yesterday that the bank’s London branches were open as normal and there were no limits on withdrawals and no change to conditions".

Link 2:  Russian Withdrawals Quantified As Cyprus Central Bank Set To Expand Emergency Credit By Up To €3 Billion

The surprised guy looks like
another banker.
Maybe not a surprise after all.

Remember Cyprus' financial system is worth about eight times the Cyprean GDP ($18 billion euros) and that Russians had placed about $31 billion euros in Cyprus, about 20% of the wealth under attack.  I don't care for oligarchs but it burns my butt thinking of money bureaucrats in the EU stealing from everyone's savings to cover for people like themselves who are in deep debt they can't pay back and "too big to fail".    Sometimes public policy is just wealth transfer from the weak to the strong.  If you punish savings and reward borrowing, less is saved and more is borrowed. This is not rocket science. As others have pointed out, if you risk your own money and fail, you are hurt but if you risk other people's money and fail, the whole system is wounded.  (OPM = other people's money).

This may be more smoke than fire if the London branches are limited in the funds they can access.

UPDATE:  There are many corrupt players back on the Island!  Read this insider account published in Zero Hedge.    The story in this posting emerges easily from what went before.  Also, Part 2.