Grey area Roubles and rials that fuel 'shady' boom

Russian speakers love living here, they like to be in a community and ours is growing all the time," said Ruslan Ibrayev, the salesman greeting customers at the head office of the Hub property investment firm in Iskele in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus.

-  Helena Smith

The area, he beams, has become a magnet for buyers from the former Soviet Union. "Business is good," said the young Kazakhstani. "Very good." 

Developers would would agree. Construction activity in the island's self-proclaimed republic is booming.

Tower blocks are multiplying thanks to an influx of roubles and Iranian rials that have led to cashflows increasing and foreign currency reserves soaring to about 80% of the value of bank holdings.

It is clear that after Anglo-US sanctions were slapped on individuals and entities for "enabling" oligarchs to manage assets in the internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, Russians seeking to move their money inside Europe are looking elsewhere.

And, increasingly, it appears they have looked no further than across the UN buffer zone that bisects the warsplit island, to the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.