Remember blood diamonds? They funded wars, mainly in Africa. But Russia is the world’s biggest diamond producer by volume and they are now doing the same thing in Ukraine. So far Siberia’s vast diamond output hasn’t been subject to sanctions, partly because of objections from Belgium, which argues limits on the diamond trade in Antwerp would simply send it elsewhere. Now Brussels is open to a G7 plan to trace all Russian diamonds and ban their import, which the UK says it will do unilaterally anyway. It’s a good idea in principle. In practice, Russia has run rings around most efforts to discipline its diamond trade ever since the end of the cold war.
