Belgium and the Russian Diamonds

Despite wide-ranging sanctions put in place against Russia since the invasion of Ukraine, diamonds from the country are still flowing freely into the European Union. As this chart using data from the National Bank of Belgium shows, although the trade value had decreased significantly as of August, there was a large spike recorded in June - four months into the war - when almost €400 million worth of diamonds were imported into Belgium from Russia.

As reported by The Guardian, although Belgium is the only country in the EU to import any significant volume of diamonds from Russia, and the country itself stating it would not block a ban, pressure to add diamonds to the list of sanctions has so far been resisted - despite calls from Ukraine President Zelensky who told Belgium's parliament in March that peace was worth “more than any diamonds”.