G7 countries to announce ban on imports of Russian diamonds in coming weeks – Reuters

The G7 countries plan to announce a ban on Russian diamonds in the next 2-3 weeks, a representative of the Belgian government told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Efforts to reduce Russia's income from diamond exports and the development of Washington's existing sanctions against Russia's Alrosa, the world's largest diamond producer, have become the subject of debate among G7 leaders.

"The G7 have decided on the principle of tying origin to quality, but are still working out the details," the official said.

Belgium proposed a plan to trace rough diamonds and link them to diamonds.

"The burden of tracking is on traders and producers, so India is already doing it. They will have to provide proof of origin of diamonds to sell in the G7," he said.

Antwerp, Belgium, is the world's largest diamond trading center. At this time, since Russian diamonds are cut and polished outside of Russia, they are considered to come from the country that "processed" them.

"We’re talking about restructuring a global market," the official said, admitting that everything will not work perfectly right away.

The source added that Russia is the largest supplier in the world, but with the help of new sanctions, the Russian Federation is being cut off from the market. We are slashing the financial flows from this sector," the official added.

In May, G7 leaders agreed not to ease sanctions pressure on Russia and introduce new restrictions. This was discussed in the communique agreed at the Hiroshima summit. One of the main restrictions agreed upon by the G7 leaders concerned Russian diamonds.