In Rare Move, Singapore Sanctions Big Russian Banks Over Ukraine War

Singapore:

Singapore has introduced sanctions on the Russian Central Bank and some other Russian banks as well as imposed restrictions on the exports to the country over the Russian military operation in Ukraine, the Singaporean Foreign Ministry said on Saturday.

"Financial institutions in Singapore will be prohibited from the following: ... entering into transactions or arrangements, or providing financial services that facilitate fundraising by: the Russian government; the Central Bank of the Russian Federation; any entity owned or controlled by them or acting on their direction or behalf. The prohibitions apply to buying and selling new securities, providing financial services that facilitate new fundraising by, and making or participate in the making of any new loan to the above entities," the ministry said in a statement.

The sanctions targeted four Russian banks: VTB, Vnesheconombank, Promsvyazbank and Bank Rossiya.

"In order to constrain Russia's capacity to conduct its war in Ukraine and cyber aggression, all permit applications to Russia involving (a) all items on the List of Military Goods under the SGCO; and (b) all category codes under Category 3 - Electronics, Category 4 - Computers and Category 5 - Telecommunications and "Information Security" on the List of Dual-Use Goods under the SGCO will be rejected," the statement added.   

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