Russia to unveil the diamond and platinum statistics

The decision of the Kimberly Process may cause serious damage to Russia as a diamond exporter

Russia is to unveil the data about the extraction, export and import of diamonds before the end of October, Sergey Vyazalov, director of the administrative department of the Russian Finance Ministry told reporters on Friday.  According to the official, the law “About the State Secret” was finally amended on February 17th, 2004. The special draft decree has been developed for the implementation of the amendments. “We as the Russian Federation pledge to sign the decree before the plenary session of the Kimberley Process in order to disclose the figures by the plenary session,” Vyazalov was quoted by Interfax as saying.

The so-called Kimberly Process is aimed at withdrawing 'conflict' or 'bloody' diamonds from circulation. Such diamonds are called so because they are sold to fund anti-governmental and terrorist organizations.

The session of the Kimberly Process will discuss the possibility of imposing sanctions against the states, which do not expose the diamond statistics. The session will take place in Canada’s Ottawa on October 27th. A considerable damage is likely to be caused to Russia’s interests at this point: Russia exports almost a half of the extracted rough diamonds. The Russian Finance Ministry is doing its best to meet the tight schedule.

The Russian diamond giant Alrosa believes the diamond statistics needs to be declassified. Spokespeople for the company say that the secrecy impedes the development of the company and complicates its relations with foreign partners.

Before the amendments to the above-mentioned law were passed, the data about the reserves, extraction volumes and sales of precious stones, diamonds in particular, the reserves of platinum metals, the data about the general volumes of their production and export were considered the state secret.