Ukraine war: Singapore slaps sanctions on Russian banks, cryptocurrency transactions

The unilateral measures include the imposition of export controls on items that can be used as weapons and targeted financial curbs on designated Russian banks

Singapore’s biggest banks have already halted issuing US dollars for trades involving oil and liquefied natural gas

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People queue to withdraw US dollars from an ATM in a Moscow supermarket on Thursday. Photo: SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Published: 11:36am, 5 Mar 2022Updated: 12:45pm, 9 Mar 2022

Singapore will impose unilateral sanctions against Russia, a move a former diplomat said was the first time in decades that the city state was censuring a foreign nation without backing from the United Nations Security Council.

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.

The measures also ban Singapore’s financial institutions from providing services that would aid Russia’s government in raising new funds.

The island nation’s trade in goods with Russia amounted to around S$5 billion (US$3.7 billion) in 2021, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in an email, adding that imports from Moscow and Kyiv equal 0.8 per cent of total imports to the city state.

Singapore sovereign wealth fund, GIC, on Saturday said it will cease investments of the government’s funds into newly-issued Russian sovereign and central bank debt.