The Russian government has accused Western nations of trying to undermine the Kimberley Process (KP).
The Group of Seven (G7) countries and the European Union have sought to politicise the global diamond watchdog and introduce their own “biased” parallel regulatory programme, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Alexei Moiseev wrote in an open letter to the KP chairman on Sunday.
The claims come ahead of next week’s KP plenary meeting in Zimbabwe and reflect controversy over attempts by the G7 – which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, the US and the EU – to impose a bloc-wide ban on Russian diamonds.
“Westerners have already made a fundamental decision for themselves that they are not satisfied with the current transparent format of the Kimberley Process,” Moiseev said in the five-page letter. “In this regard, they are trying either to distort the foundations of its work in favour of their geopolitical interests, or to destabilise and eventually destroy the KP in order to replace it with their own control mechanism.”
The KP had succeeded in reducing the proportion of conflict diamonds in the market to 1% by 2022 and had led to other improvements in the industry, he argued. But since last year, he continued, Western countries have sought to “blur” the organisation’s “scope of competence” and “distort its relevant objectives”.
He alleged “massive anti-Russian propaganda”, as well as attempts to block the nomination of Russian ally Belarus for KP vice-presidency in 2024 and chairmanship in 2025. He also referred to a 7 September letter from Ukraine attempting to “distort” the agenda of the upcoming 6-10 November plenary.
Efforts to find a way to keep Russian diamonds out of the G7 because of the war in Ukraine were a “clear manifestation” of this course, he claimed. “The discriminatory measures of the G7, if implemented, will essentially take the form of a parallel structure to the KP”, replacing the current “equal for all” system with a “restrictive mechanism based on [a] biased political approach”.
He also said Russia was ready to host a review visit in 2024 to demonstrate its compliance with KP requirements.
The letter comes after the African Diamond Producers Association (ADPA) criticised efforts to implement a ban on Russian diamonds, accusing Western authorities of failing to consult Africans.
The World Diamond Council (WDC), which represents the industry at the KP and is coordinating one of the proposals for a G7 ban on Russian diamonds, was unavailable for comment by press time. The US State Department declined to comment.
