The Russian mercenary Wagner group trades diamonds worldwide by means of an organization based mostly within the Central African Republic, in accordance with an investigation performed by the Belgian every day newspaper “De Standaard”. The report confused that one of many recipient nations of the diamonds was Belgium.

The Wagner group, accused of warfare crimes together with homicide and rape in warfare zones around the globe, is concerned within the diamond commerce. The Belgian newspaper’s reporters concluded this in cooperation with the European Investigative Collaborations (EIC), an investigative journalism venture.

The Wagner group – suspected of committing warfare crimes in Ukraine – is believed to play a significant function within the multi-million euro export of diamonds to Belgium. https://t.co/Pej1BMVN9M

— The Brussels Instances (@BrusselsTimes) December 2, 2022

The financial actions of the Russian mercenaries should not very well-known, nonetheless, they’re fairly intensive and embody, amongst different issues, the sale of treasured stones from Africa, the every day famous.

The newspaper additional states that Wagner’s group has been buying and selling diamonds since 2019, utilizing an organization known as Diamville, based mostly within the Central African Republic. The corporate in query is assumed to have been based by associates of the Wagner group, which investigative reporters confirmed by means of a number of unbiased sources. The U.S. growth cooperation company USAID experiences that Diamville is likely one of the 4 largest diamond exporters within the Central African Republic.

A lot of the commerce stays underground: a lot of the diamonds are smuggled by means of neighbouring Cameroon and Sudan, however some additionally cross by means of official channels, with export permits, De Standaard states.

Portions and bans

The journalists discovered that Belgium acquired 296 carats of diamonds value EUR 132,000 in 2019.

“Gross sales from the Central African Republic account for lower than one p.c of Antwerp’s whole diamond imports,” Tom Neys of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC), an organization that lobbies for diamond buying and selling firms in Antwerp, instructed the newspaper.

Regardless of the introduction of successive packages of EU sanctions in opposition to Moscow after the nation launched its aggression in opposition to Ukraine, the import of diamonds from Russia has to date not been banned.