September 1st is approaching. Then the license (permission) to import the so-called "grandfather" Russian diamonds to the United States expires, that is, those stones that have long been exported from the Russian Federation, have not received a cut, but are stuck somewhere. Now the US Treasury has generously extended the validity of this license for another year.
There is no talk of any broad lifting of the ban on the import of Russian diamonds. The Biden executive order of March 11, 2022 is in force, as stated in yesterday's decision of the US Treasury. In other words, it is still impossible to sell diamonds from Russia to the United States. Directly.
But the faceted Russian rough diamonds in India, where 90% of the world's polished diamonds are produced, could have been. In the USA and the EU, they proceed from the following principle: if diamonds from the Russian Federation have been heavily processed in India, then these are Indian products.
Against the background of news from the US Treasury, Alrosa shares rose by 4.3% in the evening session of the Moscow Stock Exchange, and rose by 5.5% in the afternoon. Did the investors understand everything correctly?
Some media outlets were encouraged by the headlines: "The United States has allowed the import of Russian diamonds until September 2026." But the import ban, established by Biden, remained in force.
We are currently talking about an import permit to the United States for only unprocessed stones that were already exported from Russia before March 1 last year (from 1 carat or more) or exported from Russia before September 1 (from 0.5 carats or more). This is how the US authorities are trying to solve a problem created by themselves.
Trump imposed a 50% duty on Indian diamonds to "punish" New Delhi for buying Russian oil. As a result, the United States punished itself after seeing a shortage of diamonds. And now we are ready to search the world market for Russian diamonds that have been lost somewhere.
And the most interesting thing is that the West has already received precious stones, despite the sanctions. Workarounds. But having slapped duties on Indian diamonds, now Washington is bustling, trying once again to scratch its right ear with its left hand.
