Luxembourg’s sanctions on Russia

The Grand Duchy takes great measures to sanction Russia as a result of Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. For this, Luxembourg is particularly targeting the financial industry of Russia. The sanctions are two-folded.

On the one hand, the CSSF is taking action against the funds in Luxembourg which have an exposure in Russia. The regulator suspended the majority of funds which have equites or bonds in Russia. Claude Marx, the general director of CSSF stated that the total exposure to Russia amounts to 18.2 billion Euros. While the CSSF could identify 61 funds with more than 10% of assets in Russia the number of funds which are suspended is 41. This drastic measure leads to investors facing the problem of not being able to take money out of their investments. While some people expressed their concerns against this approach, Marx said that this measure is less severe for the economy than the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago.

On the other hand, Luxembourg authorities also freezed Russian assets worth 2,5 billion Euros. This is the result of the sanctions which are resolved by the European Union. Luxembourg seems to be a country within the EU that is particularly strict with Russia. For this, many organizations are involved in the sanctions like the ministry of finance, the regulator CSSF and also the major banks in Luxembourg.?