EU hits Alrosa, the mining giant that produces over 90 percent of Russian diamonds

Brussels – The European Union officially kicked off its battle against Russian diamonds after the approval of the 12th package of sanctions against Moscow, banning, for the first time since its invasion of Ukraine, their trade. Today (Jan. 3), Brussels decided to directly sanction Pjsc Alrosa, the giant State-owned mining company and its CEO. We are speaking of the biggest diamond producer in the world, representing over 90 percent of all Russian production and contributing a very large part of the 4.5 billion dollars per year that Russia generates from the trade of luxury jewelry. Alrosa and all entities subject to EU restrictive measures will be subject to an asset freeze on European soil. It will not be able to receive funds from EU citizens and businesses. CEO Pavel Alekseevich Marinychev will not prevented from entering and transiting through the 27 member countries.

The blow dealt to Alrosa “supplements the ban on imports of Russian diamonds included in the twelfth package of economic and individual sanctions adopted on December 18, 2023,” said the EU Council in a press release. The offensive against Russian diamonds is coordinated with G7 countries as they attempt to deprive Russia of a significant source of wealth.

Until now, the State-owned company could continue its operations in Europe smoothly, as did its former CEO, Sergey Sergeyevich Ivanov, son of a longtime friend of Vladimir Putin. Replaced by Marinychev in May 2023, Ivanov is the son of a KGB officer, Sergey Borisovich Ivanov, who is part of Putin’s circle of closest aides. Ivanov senior was placed on the European sanctions list as early as March 9, 2022, two weeks after the Russian invasion began, while the former Alrosa CEO was subject to restrictive measures by the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Japan, New Zealand, and Ukraine, but not the EU.

With this new designation, Brussels’ restrictive measures against actions that compromise or threaten Ukraine’s territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence now apply to 1,950 individuals and entities. The next stage in the battle to hinder the trade in Russian diamonds should begin from March 1, with the phasing in of a traceability system, mandatory from September 1, 2024, to allow the introduction of bans on Russian diamonds processed in third countries