Russian residents in Zug

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The economic ties brought people. Managers and employees of the Russian groups and their Swiss partners moved to Zug, while wealthy Russians, Kazakhs and Ukrainians bought property in the canton and on the shores of Lake Lucerne. Some took up residence under the lump-sum taxation that Part F described. The number of Russian nationals resident in the canton almost doubled between 2012 and 2022.¹ The Russian community in the canton was never large in absolute numbers, but it was visible in the luxury property market and in the international schools.

The number of Russian nationals resident in Switzerland increased steadily in the two decades before 2022. Their distribution across the cantons followed that of other wealthy foreign residents, with the largest communities in Geneva, Zurich, Vaud, Ticino and Zug. The residents included entrepreneurs, managers, professionals and their families, of whom only a small number belonged to the category of oligarchs who later appeared on the sanctions lists. The image of Zug as a haven for Russian oligarchs, which appeared in the international press after 2022, exaggerated the role of this group. It reflected the concentration of Russian commodity companies in the canton more than the composition of its population.

Notes

Zentralplus, "In Zug leben immer mehr Russen, dafür weniger Serbinnen", 13 May 2024, zentralplus.ch, citing the cantonal Fachstelle für Statistik: 500 Russian nationals resident in the canton of Zug in 2012 and 967 in 2022. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of September 2025.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

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Russian residents in Zug

Notes

Setting up or expanding in Switzerland?