New round! Cyprus negotiations will resume?
“The moment of truth has come” – this is how Nikos Anastasiades summed up his meeting with Antonio Guterres and Mustafa Akinci. Leaders of both Cyprus communities were invited by the UN Secretary General to discuss the possibility of resuming negotiations on the unification of the island.
The meeting lasted for 3 hours, and according to the results it was announced that already in June direct negotiations between Anastassiades and Akinci will start.
In addition, the President of Cyprus managed to convince the participants that security issue should be a priority in further negotiations. UN Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide will be responsible for preparations for the international conference “Cyprus-2” in Geneva.
In exchange for investments! How many foreigners got Cyprus citizenship?
Russians are actively participating in the Cyprus Citizenship by Investment Programme, which allows obtaining Cyrus citizenship after investing in economy of the island.
According to the Bloomberg, last year alone, almost 2 thousand Cyprus passports were issued to foreigners who invested at least 2 million euro in country’s economy.
Most of the new citizens are Russian nationals, who are actively investing into expensive real estate. In 4 years participants of the investment programme have brought about 4.5 billion euro to Cyprus.
Large-scale training. Cyprus and Israel will hold military exercises
The largest-ever military exercise will be held in the coming days in Cyprus. The exercise will be organised with the participation of the National Guard and the Israeli Special Forces, who already arrived on the island. The mountain areas were chosen for the combat training.
According to the scenario of the exercise, the terrorists will seize several villages, and the military of two countries will have to free the villages from aggressors.
Dropped an anchor. Russian frigate refuelled in Limassol
This week a new Russian frigate “Admiral Grigorovich” anchored in Limassol port for few days. The ship refuelled and replenished water and food supplies. Later, the ship, which is also a part of Russian navy, headed to the Eastern Mediterranean, where it will continue patrolling Syrian coastal areas.
“Admiral Grigorovich” is equipped with the modern missile complex “Caliber”, which has already been used against terrorists.
More patrols on the roads. What is the reason for stricter police control?
Number of police officers will increase on Cyprus roads. Ministry of Internal Affairs have decided to introduce stricter traffic control for the tourist summer period. To ensure that, some of the police officers will be transferred from the offices to the streets.
New measures should help reducing the number of traffic rule violations, including “drinking and driving” cases and the total number of road accidents.
Last week alone 5 people were killed on Cyprus roads, and almost 600 people lost their lives in road accidents over the last 10 years.
High-speed highway to Polis! When construction will start?
Polis will soon be running a high-speed road. The government decided to announce a tender for the construction of a new speed highway, as the present road is not able to handle the increasing traffic volume.
The construction process is time consuming. It is planned to drill two tunnels, building five bridges and two overpasses.
The tender will be announced only in 2018, and the preparatory works could start by the end of next year.
The new route will allow reaching Polis by road from Limassol, without driving through Paphos.