Cypriot’s moneylenders, namely the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, seek to get hold of the natural gas deposits that have recently been discovered south of Cyprus in the Mediterranean, but they will get nothing, the Hierarch of the Cypriot Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos, said in a live interview with Cypriot government television.

He admitted that the economic situation in Cyprus is indeed tragic, but if Europe plans to stifle the economy of the insular nation, to prevent Cypriots from living well, it is clearly far better to withdraw from the Eurozone altogether.

Officials of the troika of international moneylenders, namely the European Union, the European Central Bank and the IMF are currently engaged in intensive talks in Nicosia on the terms of granting loan support to Cyprus.

Cyprus needs up to 17 billion euros, an equivalent of the country’s annual GDP.

Voice of Russia, RIA

Published by:  www.english.ruvr.ru