Crisis in Cyprus: Greek bonds, Russian Oligarchs, and scary politics in the Eurozone

Confused by all the talk of Cyprus? Don’t be. Here’s the situation in three sentences: The country’s banks were using Russian deposits to buy Greek bonds. The Greek bonds went bad, and the Cypriot banks lost a bundle. They now need a bailout from their euro zone partners, but it’s tough to convince German taxpayers to pony up if they think the money is really going to Russian oligarchs.

But here’s the bigger question: Why are we talking about Cyprus at all?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/22/the-scary-politics-of-the-euro-zone/