Russian-owned mining giant Alrosa has dodged the bullet: According to a report in Rough & Polished, the diamond miner was not included in the list of 29 individuals and seven entities facing an EU ban and asset freeze.
The final agreement on the new package of EU sanctions was adopted last Wednesday (October 5) in Brussels.
According to a report in EUobserver, quoted in the report, “the EU is giving Russia carte blanche to keep selling diamonds to Antwerp and the rest of Europe, despite grave escalation in Ukraine.”
According to the EUobserver, this “marks a defeat for the Baltic states, Ireland, and Poland, which had first endorsed a total diamond ban, then a non-industrial diamond ban, then the Alrosa listing, before backing down.”
Tom Neys, spokesman for the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), said that a European ban on Russian diamonds “could cost 10,000 Belgian jobs,” according to a report in IDEX Online. Neys told EUobserver the AWDC was against an EU ban, since Russia would “welcome the opportunity to sell its diamonds in Dubai or India instead.”
