MOSCOW, June 11 (RAPSI) - The Cypriot Attorney General's Office will audit a 2008 deal to buy an 80% stake in Russia's Uniastrum Bank by Bank of Cyprus, the Cypriot government reported on its website.

Bank of Cyprus was one of the republic's two main banks that have been restructured as part of the bailout deal with international creditors, which included writing off part of large deposits.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades has asked the attorney general to inspect the circumstances of the deal, according to the statement.

Bank of Cyprus bought an 80% stake in Uniastrum Bank in October 2008 for 450 million euros. The remaining 20% share of the Russian bank is held equally by Russian businessmen Georgy Piskov and Gagik Zakaryan.

Cypriot media reported repeatedly that the price of the share was overrated.

In August 2012, an online resource posted extracts from a Bank of Cyprus internal audit report that pointed to problems with Uniastrum Bank loans issued before the acquisition. The Bank of Cyprus management said they had no opportunity to analyze the audit statement, and that the volume of problem loans that it mentioned - about 13 million euros - was insignificant compared to Uniastrum Bank's loan portfolio.

Former Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis also said the price they paid for Uniastrum Bank was overstated.

In March, the EU agreed to issue a 10 billion euro emergency aid package to Cyprus in exchange for a pledge to effectively confiscate up to 60% of any depositor's holdings above 100,000 euros held in two of the country's largest banks - Bank of Cyprus and Laiki Bank. At the same time, Laiki Bank was forced to fold, merging into Bank of Cyprus.