The diamond industry has long battled to prove it’s free from “blood diamonds” — gemstones mined in war zones in Africa. Now the sector is grappling with the sudden emergence of a new type of conflict diamond: those mined in Russia that are helping to fund President Putin’s bloody assault on Ukraine.
Russia is the world’s biggest producer of rough diamonds. At least 90 per cent of Russia’s diamonds are mined by Alrosa, a company part-owned by the Kremlin. Alrosa is the world’s biggest diamond mining company by volume, accounting for 28 per cent of the global market of rough diamonds. It generated more than $4.2 billion in revenues last year.
The biggest end-market for diamond jewellery is the United States, which
