Russian poker face only reveals Cyprus peril

Moscow is heavily invested in Cyprus but is in no rush to help out, writes Felix Salmon

In his Financial Times blog, Paul Murphy said after the Cypriot finance minister, Michael Sarris, returned empty-handed from Moscow: “Medvedev and co could not have played a worse hand during this crisis — and it’s not immediately clear why.”

His point is that the most likely outcome right now — he calls it “popping the red pill” — is that big depositors at Laiki Bank (read: Rich Russians) are likely to lose some 40% of their money. Since that will make Russia very unhappy, why is Russia doing nothing to prevent it?