Singapore on Saturday imposed a ban on Russia over the latter’s invasion of Ukraine, placing restrictions on operations of four banks and an export ban on electronics, computers and military items.
This was the first time in decades that the city-state was censoring a foreign nation without backing from the United Nations Security Council, Bloomberg reports.
Sanctions include the imposition of export controls on items that can be used as weapons, targeted financial measures on designated Russian banks and restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions that may be used to circumvent financial sanctions, according to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Saturday.
“For a small state like Singapore, this is not a theoretical principle, but a dangerous precedent. This is why Singapore has strongly condemned Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine,” the ministry said in the statement.
“We cannot accept the Russian government’s violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of another sovereign state,” the statement added.
The measures also ban Singapore’s financial institutions from providing services that would aid Russia’s government in raising new funds. Singapore’s trade in goods with Russia amounted to around S$5billion ($3.7billion) in 2021, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in an email, adding that imports from Russia and Ukraine equal 0.8% of total imports to the city-state.
Singapore sovereign wealth fund, GIC Pte., on Saturday said it will cease investments of the government’s funds into newly-issued Russian sovereign and central bank debt.
