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Morally talking, the case is closed on Russian diamonds.
And they’ll quickly be banned from 70 % of the world’s markets, in a transfer to be unveiled by the Group of Seven (G7) rich nations.
The EU expects its 27 member states to comply with swimsuit.
A proposed ban on Russian liquid fuel imports would hurt the Kremlin’s war-chest extra.
However even when the EU cannot agree a fuel embargo, the diamond ban would have the added worth of hindering Russian corruption schemes in Europe and Africa, Ukraine says.
Simply suppose
Contemplating shopping for a Russian diamond for the one you love?
Then suppose “the cash you pay for will probably be spent by Russia on weapons that can take the lifetime of a bride or groom in Ukraine. Or their baby”, mentioned Agiya Zagrebelska, the top of the sanctions division in Ukraine’s Nationwide Company on Corruption Prevention (NACP).
“Are you able to think about what it is prefer to delete cellphone numbers out of your deal with ebook, virtually day by day, as a result of these folks had been killed by weapons bought with cash from the civilised world?,” she added, chatting with EUobserver from Kyiv.
“Cease shopping for something produced and offered by the aggressors,” she mentioned.
A diamond embargo would “initially, show solidarity with Ukraine,” its EU ambassador, Chentsov Vsevolod, additionally mentioned in Brussels.
Diamonds “generate important earnings to finance the warfare towards Ukraine,” he mentioned.
Comparable appeals had gone unheeded ever since Russia invaded Ukraine final February.
Belgium, the world’s high diamond dealer, imported some €1.4bn of Russian stones final 12 months.
However after a rising political outcry at dwelling and overseas, the EU nation is now finalising plans with the G7 states — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US — to ban Russian gems.
“We do anticipate a G7 announcement within the coming weeks,” the Belgian international ministry advised EUobserver on Thursday (28 September).
“We will affirm Belgium takes half within the G7 delegation to India,” it added, after Western diplomats travelled to New Delhi this week to hunt the Asian diamond hub’s cooperation on traceability.
Uncut stones are onerous to hint, particularly if Russian ones are blended with others earlier than being reduce and polished.
“As of immediately, no ‘fingerprinting’ expertise (which might allow the origin of a diamond to be recognized by evaluation of the diamond itself) exists,” mentioned British-South African mining agency De Beers.
However Belgium has been working with trade to create blockchain-protected G7 certificates of origin that will be utilized by customs officers to filter Russian stones at import “nodes”, such because the Antwerp Diamond Quarter.
In the meantime, the EU is at present brainstorming concepts for its Twelfth spherical of Russia sanctions.
It’s anticipated to comply with the G7’s lead.
“Relying on the character of the G7 settlement, if an settlement is reached, the [EU] Council could must undertake new authorized acts [to implement it],” the EU international service mentioned.
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“Such selections are taken by unanimity by the 27 member states,” it added, leaving scope for potential delays by Russia-friendly EU capitals.
However for Vicky Reynaert, a Belgian MP from the centre-left Ahead celebration: “There should be an import ban on direct imports of Russian diamonds into the EU and Alrosa [Russia’s giant diamond firm] should be blacklisted”.
“That’s what we would like from the G7 announcement,” she mentioned.
Liquid fuel
Because the Twelfth-round talks get underneath manner, Lithuania and Poland have redoubled calls so as to add a Russia liquid-gas embargo to an EU diamonds one.
“The EU ought to prohibit Liquefied Petroleum Gasoline (LPG) imports from Russia in an effort to protect the integrity and transparency of the LPG market and keep away from distortion of competitors,” Poland mentioned in its EU-sanctions proposal, seen by EUobserver.
The EU purchased some €5bn of liquid fuel from Russia final 12 months, a whopping 39 % larger than in 2021, and far more than the Kremlin’s diamond revenue.
As an alternative, the EU needs to be specializing in larger provides from the US and Qatar “to maneuver away from dependency on Russian fuel,” Ukraine’s ambassador mentioned.
“Ukraine can contribute to the power safety of the area by offering its huge underground storage tanks to build up fuel reserves,” Vsevolod added.
A consensus on liquid fuel could also be tougher to achieve than a post-G7 EU deal on diamonds, diplomatic sources indicated, though the EU-sanctions talks are nonetheless at a preliminary stage.
However fuel revenue and dependency apart, the Kremlin additionally makes use of diamonds in money-laundering schemes in Europe and Africa, giving the gemstone ban a strategic worth past a symbolic or monetary one, Kyiv identified.
Added worth
“Diamonds can be utilized by Russia to pay for [EU or US-sanctioned] weapons and parts, bypassing the monetary system,” the NACP’s Zagrebelska mentioned.
“Diamonds are additionally a device of geopolitics,” she added, referring to Russian-owned diamond mines within the Central African Republic and Sudan, utilized by Kremlin mercenaries to forge ties with native leaders.
Talking extra broadly, she mentioned: “The Kremlin regime relies on corruption. It is the glue that unites the [Russian] elites round [Russian president Vladimir] Putin. Diamonds are one of many parts of this glue”.
Russian officers laundered €140,000 through the acquisition of 10 carats of diamonds in Antwerp in 2008 in a single hypha of the mycelium, which was beforehand investigated by EUobserver.
A Putin-friendly oligarch and a Chechen mobster used non-public jets to fly black-market diamonds out of Antwerp some 10 years in the past, in a extra harmful scheme, which implicated a Belgian intelligence officer and a Nato colonel.
“We reside in a fancy, actual world and it is naive to suppose that one resolution [a diamond ban] might destroy the affect constructions that the Kremlin has been constructing for many years, however each proper resolution brings us nearer to this,” Zagrebelska mentioned.
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