‘No questions asked’: how Russian money is fuelling a building boom in northern Cyprus

Casinos and schools fill with Russians in the island’s Turkish-occupied north, which offers a sanctions-free life for those seeking to move their money after a clampdown in the south

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

The area, he beams, has become a magnet for buyers from the former Soviet Union, so much so they have moved in en masse. “Business is good,” says the young Kazakhstani, waxing lyrical about the penthouses, apartments and studio flats that the real estate agency has been selling at record speed. “Very good.”

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