Tucked away in a Guardian article otherwise about allegations of breaches of the UK’s sanctions, it is being reported that the Cypriot Ministry of Finance has confirmed that it is investigating whether Cypriot subsidiaries of the Essar Group entered into transactions with Russia’s VTB Bank that breached, or circumvented, the EU’s sanctions.
The allegations relate to the movement of debt obligations owed by the Essar Group to VTB Bank from Cyprus to Mauritius in 2022.