“Russia to Declassify Diamond Data”

Russia will declassify statistical information about the production, import and export of rough diamonds by October 2004, a Russian official told the press Friday.

Russian news agencies quoted the head of the administrative department of the Russian Finance Ministry, Sergey Vyazalov, after meeting with Kimberley Process chairman, Tim Martin. One of the goals of the Process is to increase transparency of global rough diamond production and sales.

Meantime, Russian President Vladimir Putin is yet to sign a decree amending the list of state secrets, which will allow the Economic Development and Trade, Natural Resources and Finance Ministries to amend their own lists of secrets and authorize such disclosure.

According to MosNews, Russia’s Natural Resources Ministry reported that the disclosure of data on the country’s diamonds had been delayed, despite a law allowing the disclosure being effective since February.

A state technical commission, that is to report to President Putin and the Natural Resources Ministry, has coordinated a new list of classified data concerning platinum and precious stone deposit stocks.