Two scenarios are being considered regarding the video published on “X”, which shows a close associate and relative of the President, a former minister and friend of his, and a businessman discussing with prospective investors the illegal funding of his 2028 presidential election campaign.
The first scenario (the good one) is that the claims made by the Presidential Palace are indeed correct: that the video is fabricated and the product of a hybrid operation against the Republic of Cyprus, with a Russian hand allegedly behind it.
Although we are not experts, even following the assessment by specialists from the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT), which was made public yesterday and concluded that the video is not, at least, a product of artificial intelligence, questions regarding its authenticity remain. The conversations presented are clearly fragmentary and edited, with the stitching together of unrelated excerpts plainly visible. Even where the recorded exchanges indirectly imply references to funding for the President and the First Lady’s fund, they remain vague and general. Furthermore, the timing of the video’s release - the day after the visit and warm reception in Nicosia of the Ukrainian President - as well as the Ukrainian flag displayed next to the name of the evidently fake account that published it, do indeed point to a provocation with a Russian fingerprint.
The second scenario (the bad one), both for the President personally and for Cyprus, is that the video, despite its gaps and “grey areas”, is entirely genuine and neither malicious nor manipulative, and that this time someone has managed to catch the country’s highest office-holder, the President of the Republic, being implicated - through close associates - in acts of corruption, cronyism and illegal funding in exchange for favours. And to be frank, as the video was released, it does create impressions of illicit money flows.
If - we repeat - the video is proven to be untampered with and authentic, then the consequences and impact will not be limited to the President and the associates and friends involved, but will extend to the country as a whole, at a time when Cyprus appeared to be leaving behind the dark chapter of recent years, and particularly that of the previous flawed administration.
In conclusion, based on the information currently available, neither of the two scenarios can be confirmed or ruled out a priori.
For this reason, an immediate, thorough and impartial investigation by all competent authorities - state, independent and even international bodies whose credibility cannot be questioned - is imperative, both into the authenticity of the video and into what is recorded in it. Their findings must be made public without delay, because Cyprus cannot afford further shadows and suspicions of this kind.