Singapore announces series of sanctions against Russia for invasion of Ukraine

Singapore on Saturday announced a list of economic sanctions against Russia, which include export controls on strategic items and other financial measures.

The measures include banning transactions or facilitating fundraising by the Russian government and banning items deemed military and electronic goods by customs.

The government of the Asian country claimed that it intends to prevent the use of resources that could be used in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in cyber attacks.

“We will impose export controls on items that can be used directly as weapons to inflict damage or subdue Ukrainians, as well as items that can contribute to offensive cyber operations,” the country’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The sanctions announced by Singapore against Russia are:

• Singapore Customs will reject all Russian permit applications involving all items listed as military goods, electronics, computers and “Telecommunications and Information Security”;
• All financial institutions in Singapore will be banned from transacting or establishing business relationships with major Russian financial institutions, including VTB Bank, VEB.RF, Promsvyazbank and Bank Rossiya;
• Singapore will prohibit transactions or the facilitation of fundraising for the Russian government and the Central Bank of Russia or any entity owned by them;
• Singapore will ban the provision of financial services in the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in the transport, telecommunications and energy sectors;
• Digital payment token service providers are prohibited from facilitating any transactions “that could help circumvent these financial measures.”