For homesick russian tycoon, instant of ruin came in court, страница 4

“This is affecting everything in our lives,” she said. “Even though you don’t want to count on money, you need it. But we don’t have stability.”

In Brussels, the day was filled with confusion and rancor. Reports filtered out of heated confrontations between Mr. Anastasiades and European Union negotiators, and especially with the International Monetary Fund, which Mr. Anastasiades has accused of trying to push Cyprus up against a wall.

Mr. Anastasiades told officials including Christine Lagarde, head of the monetary fund, that accepting harsh terms might force him to step down. By early morning, the tone has softened, with Ms. Lagarde telling reporters that the experience of reaching a deal had been “laborious” but yielded “a good result.” She said she would recommend to the fund’s board that it make a contribution to the bailout package, but said that sum still needed to be determined.

“We believe that this will form a lasting, durable and fully financed solution,” she said.

A key issue has been the enormous size of Cyprus’s banking sector, which is eight times bigger than the economic output of Cyprus, which has only 860,000 people.

Germany and other countries have criticized the banks as far too big and too indulgent toward money tainted by crime, and the deal represented a triumph for them. Cyprus, though, fought bitterly to keep the sector intact as a way of sustaining its lifeblood and continuing to draw international investors, including wealthy Russians and thousands of businesses with hefty accounts.

Last summer, Cyprus’s banks took steep losses on their large holdings of Greek bonds when that nation was given its own bailout and bondholders had to take losses. Coupled with a decline in real estate values, the banking troubles forced Cypriot leaders to formally ask for a bailout.

As the negotiations lasted into the night, people in Cyprus cursed being in the dark about their fate.

“They have confused us so much over the past week, we don’t have any idea what is going on,” said Rami Suleiman, a businessman who owns six shops, two hotels and a restaurant.

Back in his office after a trip to a cash machine that resulted in only 100 euros and not the 260 he had sought, Mr. Suleiman settled at his desk, piled with receipts from his previous trips to get cash, and began combing TV channels to find out what had happened a in Brussels.

“Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. There is no news at all,” he said, lamenting the uncertainty that has pushed him and others here into a state of quiet despair about the future of their country.

While Mr. Anastasiades, who took office less than a month ago, has faced mounting criticism from many Cypriots for his handling of the crisis, he was cheered like a soccer star before a big game by a dwindling band of die-hard fans Sunday.

“Go Nikos, Go!” wrote Danae Karayianni on the Facebook page of the president’s re-election campaign headquarters. “Don’t back down president. We are with you and fully supporting you,” wrote another supporter.

Having secured a deal, Mr. Anastasiades and his country face an arduous future, even if the immediate threat has been lifted.

“The near future will be very difficult for the country and its people,” Olli Rehn, the European Union commissioner for economic and monetary affairs, told the news conference. But the deal was “necessary for the Cypriot people to rebuild their economy on a new basis.”