The West is preparing an embargo against Russian diamonds

Western countries want to block Russia’s one more source of large export revenue — the sale of diamonds. Currently, the G7 countries intend to join the United States, which has already imposed sanctions against the Alrosa company in order to limit Russia’s diamond income. This is written by mind with reference to the Financial Times.

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What is known

The goal of the G7 is to create an effective international mechanism for tracking diamonds of Russian origin to limit sanctions evasion.

In this case, the European Union will be able to introduce a diamond embargo, to which one of the world’s largest jewelry centers – Belgium – will agree, which now fears that the sanctions will simply lead to the redirection of trade flows to non-Western countries, the newspaper notes. In addition, the USA will be able to tighten its sanctions.

If a working scheme is created, customs in western countries will require a certificate of initial origin of diamonds.

Read: The new package of EU sanctions: diamonds, nukes and propaganda — what awaits the Russian Federation

Now many stones are described as Indian, because they undergo “substantial processing” in the form of polishing or cutting in India, through which more than 90% of the diamonds mined in the world pass. But in G7, the intention is to achieve full identification.

In the case of Russian production, this is especially difficult, because “Alrosa” mainly supplies small stones. However, the export of rough diamonds from Russia amounted to $4 billion in 2021.

The main goal of Western sanctions is to reduce revenues to the Russian budget, from which military actions against Ukraine are financed.

A certification system for some diamonds already exists within the framework of the Kimberley Process; this is a scheme approved by the UN to prevent the entry into the market of “blood diamonds” illegally mined in Africa. But in this case, the customs requires only a state certificate confirming that the diamonds meet the requirements of the Kimberley process.

In addition, there are certification systems for larger and more expensive stones, for example, at De Beers. But it will be difficult to identify and track many small stones supplied by Russia.

“It’s impossible with small stones, period,” Russell Mehta, managing director of diamond dealer Rosy Blue India, told the FT.

Rosy Blue itself simply stopped buying diamonds from Alrosa — so that there would be no problems with customers.

The technical solution is now being developed by the Spacecode company: its equipment tries to identify the geographical origin of the diamond and applies nano-engraving.

Source: Ministry of Finance

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