.RUSSIA'S DIAMOND sector is under pressure. On January 1st the G7, a team of wealthy countries, and also the European Alliance outlawed imports of tough gemstones unearthed in Russia-- a third of the overall removed worldwide in 2022. On January 3rd the EU included Russia's state exploration provider, as well as its own chief executive, to its sanctions checklist. This is the 1st stage of a complete injunctions plan: in March the G7 as well as EU will certainly disallow Russian treasures that have actually been reduced and also polished abroad. In September they will certainly present a license scheme to validate where precious stones were actually unearthed. These solutions amount to the largest improvement to the business in many years. Why possesses it taken such a long time to establish sanctions on Russia's gemstone industry-- and also what impact will they have?