Russians seek ways to beat Cyprus curbs With most banks in Cyprus due to reopen on Thursday, the island's many Russian depositors are scheming ways to beat the looming limits on withdrawals and money transfers designed to stem a run on the banks. A majority of the deposits of more than €100,000 at the Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank are ultimately owned by Russian beneficiaries, a person close to one of the lenders told the Financial Times - meaning that Russian businesses and individual depositors will be paying the lion's share of the local bailout. While the person said he expected Russian clients of the two lenders to lose €3.5bn-€4bn, Eugene Tarzimanov, a banking analyst at Moody's in Moscow, called that estimate "optimistic," noting that Moody's estimates were higher. Moreover, while Russian clients from other Cypriot lenders, such as Russian Commercial Bank, will no longer see their deposits taxed, they are still likely to incur losses under expected capital controls, which would halt most large-scale money transfers for months to come. The bailout agreement provoked a mixed reaction from Russians with exposure to Cyprus, with depositors at Russian Commercial Bank, the Cyprus subsidiary of VTB, Russia's second biggest state bank, boasting that they had been saved but others warning that small and medium Russian entrepreneurs were now bearing the brunt of the bailout. While most Russian state groups had probably banked with Russian Commercial Bank, according to Dimitry Afanasiev, chairman of Egorov, Pugisnky, Afanasiev & Partners law firm in Moscow, many private businessmen - including his own clients - had chosen Laiki or Bank of Cyprus. "These people thought their savings were safe in the EU and now they are caught in the pincers of the German blitzkrieg, with Cyprus unable and Russia unwilling to protect them," he said. In Limassol, the beach town home to many of the island's Russians, talk has shifted from the mistakes of the first bailout proposal to how people are physically going to get their money out of frozen bank accounts. Of particular concern are the powers granted to the Cypriot Central Bank last week which give it the authority to convert current account funds into taxable deposits, meaning that bigger Russian businesses who do not hold deposits in Cyprus could end up being affected. Nikolai, a businessman from Chelyabinsk, fielded calls on Monday about his deposit - "more than €100,000" - at Cyprus's Hellenic Bank while lying poolside in Limassol. In Russia, getting money out of a frozen bank account would be easy, he said. You would call the bank's manager, give 10 per cent to him and keep the rest for yourself. Here it doesn't work like that. Others, however, showed a more entrepreneurial spirit. "If you have an account not just for yourself but for your wife, your mother, your father, your children, you can disperse the money between all the accounts of your relatives and little by little you can start moving it away," said a Russian lawyer in Cyprus who asked not to be named. [The Cypriots] are sitting and waiting and they are hoping their government will care for them. Russians are used to taking care of ourselves," he added - a benefit of having lived through three domestic financial crises in two decades. Over a bottle of red wine on Friday, two Russian friends in Limassol began hatching a scheme to help one of them move €40,000 from his Laiki account to the other's account outside Cyprus. How they plan to circumvent Cyprus's current freeze on bank accounts and capital controls without breaking the law will remain shrouded in mystery. "A good idea stops being a good idea when everyone knows about it," deadpanned one of the friends. This is one of the things Russians are famous for. We are very inventive," said the Laiki bank account holder with a wry smile. Even if the rules change I think we will find some way to get around them.