Russia Sanctions: Luxembourg Operators Freezed Assets Amounting to €2.5bn

On Tuesday 29 March 2022, during a joint meeting of the Finance and Budget Committee and the Justice Committee of the Chamber of Deputies (Parliament), Luxembourg's Minister Finance, Yuriko Backes, and the Minister of Justice, Sam Tanson, took stock of the European Union's (EU) restrictive measures (sanctions) in response to Russia's military aggression against Ukraine.

In particular, the government ministers informed Members of Parliament (MPs) of the modalities relating to the sanctions regime, their implementation at the national level and their possible impact on the financial sector.

Minister Backes provided an update on coordination within the interinstitutional committee in charge of monitoring restrictive measures in financial matters, which was created in 2010. She recalled that in Luxembourg, all operators are responsible for the implementation of restrictive measures and underlined that the Grand Duchy has a legal framework which allows the various authorities to ensure that financial sanctions are respected.

The Finance Minister also noted that the EU has implemented several sanction regimes over the past decades and that Luxembourg operators have all the experience required for effective implementation. In this context, Minister Backes shared the latest figures on the application of sanctions against Russia. To date, Luxembourg operators have been able to freeze the assets of sanctioned persons and entities amounting to nearly €2.5 billion. These include bank assets as well as equity securities of sanctioned persons or entities. No request for authorisation derogating from the financial restrictive measures has been issued to date.

Minister Backes commented: "The EU sanctions regime against Russia is producing tangible results in Luxembourg. Our country is playing its full role in the common EU response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine".

For her part, Luxembourg's Minister of Justice, Sam Tanson, gave details on the issue of seizure of assets and on the legal modalities relating to criminal seizure and confiscation. These measures are independent of the mechanism of the sanctions taken against Russia. There is a "freeze and seize" task force at the European level which enables the exchange and coordination of approaches and best practices.

Minister Tanson also indicated that the Luxembourg Business Registers (LBR) has, at the request of the Ministry of Finance, identified the companies registered in the Luxembourg Trade and Companies Register (Registre de commerce et des sociétés - RCS) for which persons included in the sanctions lists are provided. The LBR's research has identified 86 companies in relation to eleven different natural persons as of 15 March 2022. These also allow the Ministry of Finance to verify the effectiveness of the implementation of sanctions.