Search on already for plan B

It is still unclear who is taking charge of talks to save Cyprus. Is it Europe or Russia, asks Mike Peacock

THEY’VE only been looking for it for few days, but Cyprus’s plan B has already taken on mythical status — but a myth it might remain.

Ideas being floated include nationalising the pension fund (back of the envelope calculations suggest that will raise less than €1bn) and issuing bonds underpinned by future natural gas revenues (but nobody is really sure how much they are worth). So to avoid default it still looks like the Cypriots may have to return to the bank levy they rejected so decisively in parliament on Tuesday, to raise the €5.8bn the eurozone is demanding in return for a bailout.