Athanasios Orphanides, a former governor of the Central Bank of Cyprus, has hit out at the "mismanagement" of the Cypriot crisis by the European authorities who instigated the bail-in of depositors in March, and the communist government he holds responsible for the country's economic deterioration.

He said the decision to introduce credit risk into what used to be safe bank deposits – a decision he laid at the feet of the Eurogroup – was something "you definitely do not do during a crisis".

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