Russia Hits Out at G7 Sanction Plan
November 02, 23
(IDEX Online) - Russia's finance ministry has hit out at G7 plans to sanction its diamonds, claiming it will discredit and undermine the existing Kimberley Process (KP).
In a strongly-worded letter it claims Western countries, the G7 and the EU will deliberately distort the global rough diamond market if they implement their own regulations, which could, it warns "lead to increased social unrest and insurgency in certain regions".
Four traceability options are currently under consideration and the G7 - representing 70 per cent of global diamond sales - are expected to announce their favored proposal any day now.
Russia's state-owned miner Alrosa has so far suffered no reduction in rough sales from a gaping loophole in US sanctions that permit diamonds polished abroad (India accounts for over 90 per cent).
But G7 sanctions, which may well be backed by blockchain technology, are liklely to have a real impact.
Russia's deputy finance minister Alexei Moiseyev, pulls no punches in his letter to KP members, issued ahead of their plenary, which starts on 6 November in Zimbabwe.
"Any attempts to accuse Russia of non-compliance with the requirements of the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme are completely groundless," he says.
He accuses Western countries of: "blatantly proclaiming their own exceptionalism and civilizational supremacy".
He says they "consider it untenable for themselves to accept the existence of a multilateral mechanism that truly operates on the principles of pluralism, consensus, equality of participants and does not serve their geopolitical interests."
Pic shows rough diamonds, courtesy Alrosa