Nicos Anastasiades

Nicos Anastasiades (Νίκος Αναστασιάδης ; born 27 September 1946) is a Cypriot politician and businessperson, who served as the seventh president of Cyprus from 2013 to 2023.

Anastasiades was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1981 with the Democratic Rally and remained an MP until 2013, when he resigned in order to assume his duties as President of the Cyprus.

Previously, he was the leader of Democratic Rally between 1997 and 2013 and served as Member of Parliament from Limassol between 1981 and 2013.

The law firm has denied any wrongdoing and Anastasiades has said that he has had no active involvement in the firm since 1997.

He was the leader of his party from 1997 to 2013.

In March 2012, Nicos Anastasiades was nominated as a candidate for the 2013 presidential election, against his rival MEP Eleni Theocharous in a vote among the 1,008 strong executive of the Democratic Rally.

Nicos Anastasiades received 673 votes (86.73%) and Theocharous received 103 (13.27%).

First elected in the 2013 presidential election, he was re-elected in 2018.

He entered the presidency amid a deep economic crisis in Cyprus which was bailed out by the Troika (the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund).

During his tenure, the economy improved.

His administration introduced a national minimum wage and cut public spending.

He was involved in negotiations to reunify Cyprus but failed to reach an agreement.

Prior to becoming President, Anastasiades founded a law firm that provided offshore services and aided in particular Russian clients.

A considerable legacy of Anastasiades' presidency is the close relationship with the Russian government, with which he signed several agreements to promote closer economic and financial ties.

During this time, Cyprus became an important vehicle for Russian oligarchs to hide their wealth and evade international sanctions.

This coupled with a controversial 'citizenship for investment' scheme that was popularly used by Russian and Asian investors to obtain EU passports have created a perception of corruption around the Anastasiades administration.

He was mentioned in the Panama Papers, Troika Laundromat, and Cyprus Papers leaks.

He graduated in law from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and completed postgraduate studies in shipping law at the University of London.

During his university studies, he was a member of the Centre Coalition based in Athens formed by Georgios Papandreou.

Anastasiades is a lawyer by profession, and the founder of law firm "Nicos Chr. Anastasiades & Partners".

The firm provided offshore services and aided in particular Russian clients.

Partners in the law firm were officials of shell companies linked to suspected money laundering operations, including for close allies of Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

After Anastasiades took office as President, he left the firm in the hands of his two daughters and partners.

In the first round of the presidential election on 17 February 2013, Anastasiades won 45% of votes, while Stavros Malas and George Lillikas earned 26.9% and 24.9%, respectively.

He won in the second round against Malas with 57.48% of the vote and was sworn in as president on 28 February 2013.

In 2013, upon assuming office, Anastasiades inherited a critical economic crisis triggered by a combination of factors, including a persistent budget deficit, an outgrown and problematic banking sector representing 750 percent of GDP in 2010, and the fallout from a property boom.

Collaborating with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Anastasiades finalized a crucial bailout agreement in Brussels to prevent the bankruptcy of Cyprus' main banks and avoid a potential euro exit.

The agreement, signed off by the Eurogroup after extensive negotiations, involved significant measures to stabilize the country's financial system.

The deal required Anastasiades to break campaign promises, agreeing to allow banks to confiscate 47.5 percent of bank accounts over 100,000 euros to secure a 10-billion euro bailout from international lenders.

Speaking before a committee of inquiry into the island's economic collapse, Anastasiades conceded he reneged on his pledges not to accept a "haircut" on deposits, stressing that the alternative would have been catastrophic for Cyprus.

He later came to comment that Cyprus was treated as a guinea pig with extreme measures never applied before, but despite his counter-proposals they were all blatantly rejected during the Eurogroup meeting.

However, such claims were heavily criticized on the press for being misleading, citing references from Eurogroup's members who stated that the bailout plan was actually Anastasiades's proposal.

Additional criticism was due to claims that the president himself warned his associates and friends to move money abroad before financial crisis hit.

Despite the heavy criticism, the government's effective management of capital controls revived the country's banking system, and Cyprus was able to exit the bailout in 2016.

In a repeat of the previous election, he once again beat Malas in 2018.

Annual average real GDP growth from 2018 to 2022 was 4.6%, and the economy rebounded impressively in 2021 with a growth rate of 9.9%.

Government achievements include bringing national debt down to 85% of GDP by 2023, and paying off Cyprus' IMF debt ahead of schedule, providing fiscal space for sustainable investments.

As part of the bailout agreement, Cyprus Popular Bank (Laiki Trapeza), the nation's second-largest lender, underwent a swift resolution process.

Guaranteed deposits under 100,000 euros were transferred to a "good bank," while non-performing loans and uninsured deposits went to a "bad bank," resulting in losses for bondholders and shareholders totaling 4.2 billion euros.

The "good bank" was subsequently merged with Bank of Cyprus, the largest lender, where uninsured deposits faced a haircut to achieve a 9 percent capital ratio.