As G7 nations continue to develop their plans for sanctions on Russian polished diamonds, Russia’s deputy finance minister Alexey Moiseev released a statement warning that any measures targeting the country’s gems could politicize the Kimberley Process certification scheme.

“The discriminative measures of the G7, if implemented, will essentially take the form of a structure parallel to the KP,” Moiseev said in a letter to Kimberley Process chair Zhemu Soda of Zimbabwe. “If the malicious erosion of the Kimberley Process by the Western countries will be ignored, then the diamond community will irretrievably lose the unique multipartite regulatory mechanism it is used to and rightly values.

“The forthcoming plenary will in many ways be a watershed,” Moiseev’s statement said. “The Kimberley Process will either prevail as an efficient and well-balanced broad-based regulatory mechanism as we have known it—or we might see its regrettable decay in fading into obscurity or becoming yet another geopolitical instrument in the hands of the West.”

Moiseev noted that the African Diamond Producers Association has released a letter expressing concern about the G7’s plans to sanction Russian diamonds. He also complained that Western countries have blocked the nomination of Russia’s close ally Belarus for 2025 KP vice chair, even though it’s currently the only nominee for the post.

The KP focal point for Ukraine, which is also a member of the certification scheme, has urged that Russia’s gems be deemed “conflict diamonds” and banned by the KP. Those calls have been backed by the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition. But so far the KP, which requires complete consensus to make a decision, has resisted any proposal to embargo Russian gems.

Moiseev’s letter blamed “Western countries” for launching a “hatred campaign against Russia” at the KP. “All forms of communication within the KP—be it the exchange of letters or speeches at the plenaries and working-body meetings—are packed with slanderous clichés,” it read. “These primitive propaganda-carousels…are no more than a cover-up for their subversive activities.”

(Photo courtesy of the Kimberley Process)

Follow JCK on Instagram: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Twitter: @jckmagazine
Follow JCK on Facebook: @jckmagazine