Mavroyiannis suggests foreign link in scandalous leaked video

Speculation intensified on Friday over the origins of a video alleging illicit campaign financing and pay-to-play access to President Nikos Christodoulides, with former diplomat Andreas Mavroyiannis and others pointing to possible foreign involvement.

Mavroyiannis, who ran against Christodoulides in the 2023 presidential elections, suggested the timing of the leak was not coincidental, linking it to Russian dissatisfaction over their alleged campaign contributions.

He told reporters that while suspicions of illegal funding during the campaign had long existed, the release of the video could represent a reaction by financiers who felt “sold out” by Christodoulides’ subsequent political positioning.

Cybersecurity expert Dinos Pastos added another layer to the debate, remarking upon linguistic traces in the video and its accompanying text.

The repeated use of the letter “ı”, characteristic of Turkish but absent from English, and the presence of “ş” in video frames, could point to a Turkish connection, he said, though he cautioned that such markers could have been deliberately inserted to mislead investigators.

“One letter holds a lot of information. Language used in these situations always leaves traces,” he commented.

The video, first posted on the X platform by an account called “EmilyTanalyst”, shows senior figures discussing ways to bypass the €1 million campaign spending cap and describes mechanisms by which businesspeople allegedly gained privileged access to the president and the first lady.

Government officials, including spokesman Constantinos Letymbiotis, have described the material as malicious, the product of montage or splicing, and part of “hybrid activity” aimed at damaging Cyprus.

Former energy minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis, featured prominently in the footage, denied the allegations, saying his remarks had been selectively edited to distort their meaning.

Opposition figures have called for a full investigation.