On 3 February, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a statement confirming preparations to enforce a new wave of sanctions ahead of the one-year anniversary of Ukraine’s incursion on 24 February.
“At this conference, we also discussed how to hold Russia accountable for the heinous harm it is wreaking. We are now discussing our alternatives with our partners. “The perpetrator must pay and be held responsible,” she stated.
Russia, through its mining behemoth Alrosa, accounts for around one-third of the world’s supply of diamond rough.
Around 85% of the world’s rough went via Antwerp, Belgium, on its way to consumers, with an estimated 10,000 people reliant on the trade for work – a fact that has previously driven the Belgian government to resist calls for sanctions on the trade or prohibition of Russian diamonds.
“At this conference, we also discussed how to hold Russia accountable for the heinous harm it is wreaking. We are now discussing our alternatives with our partners. The offender must pay and be held accountable.” – EU URSULA VON DER LEYEN
Around 85% of the world’s rough went via Antwerp, Belgium, on its way to consumers, with an estimated 10,000 people reliant on the trade for work – a fact that has previously driven the Belgian government to resist calls for sanctions on the trade or prohibition of Russian diamonds.
EU officials from Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania have consistently asked for a halt to commerce with Russia, and it looks that Belgium’s leaders’ stance has shifted.
Russia’s diamond sales to western markets, according to Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, must cease.
“Russian diamonds are blood diamonds,” De Croo told POLITICO in a statement. “The money for Russia from diamonds can only end if the access of Russian diamonds to Western markets is no longer possible. Belgium is collaborating with its partners to forge that robust front.”
Vicky Reynaert, a Belgian minister, backed De Croo.
“It’s getting increasingly difficult to explain why Belgium is unwilling to restrict Russian diamonds,” Reynaert added.
“We urge Belgium to actively engage in action with the European Commission.”
The Antwerp World Diamond Centre has again rebuffed this call to action, with spokesperson Tom Neys questioning the usefulness of sanctions. “Sanctions are not the answer,” Neys stated. “That solution may be an international framework of complete transparency, with the same compliance norms as Antwerp.”
Such a framework may include provenance criteria, in which the importer would be required to provide proof that the diamonds are not of Russian origin.
“The Belgian government has proposed requiring international traceability,” Neys told JCK Online.
“According to the idea, every company seeking entry to the US, EU, and other G7 markets would be required to give provenance information.”
The EU has imposed nine rounds of sanctions on Russia, the most recent of which went into effect in December.
Meanwhile, the United States has prohibited the import of non-industrial diamonds from Russia, while the United Kingdom sanctioned Alrosa in March. However, neither country has a big diamond trading centre the size of Belgium. Diamonds have been traded in Antwerp since the 15th century.
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