BRUSSELS, September 15 The G7 countries, which account for the majority of global diamond purchases, intend to introduce mandatory marking of stones, which will allow track their origin in order to ensure that Russian diamonds are rejected after the imposition of sanctions, the Belgian publication Soir wrote on Friday, citing a source in the Belgian government.
On Friday, media reported, citing an unnamed Belgian official, that G7 countries are expected to announce a ban on Russian diamonds within the next two to three weeks.
The Soir source, in particular, indicated that “information about the origin of the stone, its processing and the creation of the jewelry will be available to the authorities,” including customs services.
He also explained that without marking, imposing sanctions against Russian diamonds would not make sense, since “they would return in processed form through the UAE or India.” “A processed diamond receives ‘citizenship’ of the country in which it was processed,” the publication’s interlocutor emphasized.
Previously, an independent expert in the field of industry and energy, Leonid Khazanov, explained that the largest foreign diamond mining companies will not be able to replace Alrosa in the world market if an embargo is imposed on Russian diamonds from the G7 countries. He suggested that a ban on Russian diamonds in the West would lead to an increase in their sales to Israel, India, China, and the UAE. The expert noted the Indian sales direction for Alrosa's products as a key one, since Russian diamonds are the main raw material for Indian cutting factories.
AK Alrosa is the world's largest producer of diamonds in carats, accounting for 27% of global and 95% of Russian diamond production. Rough and polished diamond sales reached $4.169 billion in 2021.
In early September, the head of the European Council, Charles Michel, said that the EU continues to work on the issue of introducing sanctions against Russian diamonds, but then he could not announce the timing of introducing new anti-Russian restrictions. The European Union indicated that in order to introduce any restrictions on trade in Russian diamonds, it is necessary to enlist the support of international partners, in particular India as a key player in this area. Brussels emphasized the importance of first ensuring the traceability of Russian diamonds on world markets.
Belgium, where the largest diamond trading center is located, actively opposed sanctions against Russian diamonds. As Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Croo stated, there is no point in banning wholesale purchases of precious stones from Russia at the EU level, since they will still end up in European stores in other ways.
At the same time, at the end of August, the New York Times wrote that sanctions from the G7 countries, which will ban the import of diamonds mined in the Russian Federation, will nevertheless be introduced and will come into force approximately in January 2024. The publication noted that the sanctions would be officially announced in September. The newspaper also reported that the parties were finalizing the conditions for tracking diamonds and accompanying customs documents.
The West has increased sanctions pressure on Russia over Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated that the policy of containing and weakening Russia is a long-term strategy of the West, and sanctions have dealt a serious blow to the entire global economy. According to him, the main goal of the West is to worsen the lives of millions of people. The Russian Federation has repeatedly stated that the country will cope with the sanctions pressure that the West began to exert on Russia several years ago and continues to increase. Moscow noted that the West lacks the courage to admit the failure of sanctions against the Russian Federation. In Western countries themselves, opinions have been repeatedly voiced that anti-Russian sanctions are ineffective.