On a sun-baked plain in northern Cyprus an echoing new city rises like a mirage. Yeni Iskele has appeared so quickly that even local people can get lost when they visit. Diggers and dumpers churn up dust on unfinished roads and 12-storey flats tower over a huddle of older, low-rise houses. Billboards advertising homes for sale are written in Cyrillic and sometimes Farsi.
Five years ago Yeni Iskele was a quaint seaside village but now it is the heart of north Cyprus’s new international community. That includes 50,000 Russians who moved here to dodge President Putin’s mobilisation or avoid sanctions.
This month the Kremlin said it would open an office to provide consular services but it has been careful to confirm that this is not
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