Cypriot firms struggle with sanctions

The business registrar in the Republic of Cyprus has been flooded with requests from companies scrambling to make changes to their structures, after hundreds of firms on the island saw their assets frozen due to new sanctions targeting agencies viewed by Washington and London as "Russian enablers."

According to Cypriot news website Philenews, some 400 companies that are registered in Cyprus have been affected by an asset freeze, following sanctions imposed last month after American and British authorities included Cypriot professionals and agencies on a list of new sanctions against Russian businesspeople.

Philenews said the Department of Registrar of Companies and Intellectual Property was being flooded with requests from businesses that were linked to sanctioned service providers.

"Their aim is to make changes to the company structure so that they can be...