>>1. An attempt to soak the rich (especially the Russians) - but to give it a whiff of respectability they decided they had to soak everybody
>
>Too little to be gained.

In direct sums - yes. But keeping a large part of their own upper 5% under local tax laws is big money.

>>2. An EU trial balloon. It's easier and less damaging to contain unrest and riots in Cyprus than it would be in Spain, Italy etc.
>Although I'm sure there are many reasons and influences I think this could certanly be one of them. This is testing the waters of how a country might exit the EU. It's a tiny country of no impact to the EU in general. An experiment in EU exit.

And an object lesson for politicians - riots being one of the things they might really fear.

>>3. A Lagarde & Co. trial balloon. Basically the same idea but to gauge applicability worldwide, not just in the Eurozone
>
>I don't think so. There are too many countries where this is simply inconceivable.

Here I guess inconceivable depends more on current mind set. The trend of industrialzed coutry debt makes it possible.