New party gives voice to Russian speakers in Cyprus
LIMASSOL: Muscovite pensioner Svetlana Bogomilova emerges from a Russian grocery store into the Mediterranean sunshine near the Limassol beachfront in Cyprus. “It is very convenient here,” the retired teacher said as a family with a pushchair strolled by chatting in Russian. “There is everything you could need.” Across the European Union’s most easterly member it is easy to spot the influence of the island’s sizeable Russian-speaking community.
In the seaside city of Limassol-the main magnet for those coming to Cyprus from the former Soviet Union-posters promote concerts by Russian stars while adverts in Cyrillic offer elite flats. Money from the former Soviet region has helped spark a minibuilding boom, and the number of new arrivals just keeps on rising. Now, beyond the newspapers, schools and radio station blaring the latest Russian pop across the island, there is a striking new addition.
Two Russian-speaking businessmen have launched a political party they hope will help shake up the island, raising eyebrows in a country with deep ties to Moscow. Russian investor Alexei Voloboev insists he never dreamt of getting involved in the insular world of Cypriot politics when he became a citizen 10 years ago. But he says the rise of an ultra-nationalist party at 2016 legislative elections changed that. Last year the former restaurant and radio station owner registered Ego o Politis (Me the citizen) - a party he hopes will attract Cypriots and get the largely disengaged Russian community involved.
‘We can change something’ “We have provided a breath of fresh air for the Russian-speaking community,” Voloboev told AFP at the party’s still empty headquarters in the capital Nicosia. “We have shown that we can change something here, if we want.” There are no exact figures on the number of Russian speakers who can vote in Cyprus. Voloboev says 1,000 people have already applied to join the party and says it will gain a base among some 35,000 Cypriot passport holders, while double that number are resident on the island. Others say the number is smaller-but it could still prove a sizeable chunk in a country with only 550,000 registered voters. The party is not fielding a candidate in a presidential election to be held on Sunday, but aims to run in European Parliament elections next year. Its rise comes as alleged Kremlin meddling in Western democracies dominates global headlines.
But Voloboev and vice president Ivan Mikhnevich, an IT entrepreneur from Belarus, laugh off any suggestion they are doing Moscow’s bidding as “anti-Russian hysteria”. “If I wanted to build Russia then I would go back and live in Russia,” said Voloboev. —AFP