Gaborone meeting unlikely to blacklist Russian diamonds

When the world’s diamond producers, their biggest customers, civil society groups monitoring the industry and others, meet in Gaborone in June to discuss issues affecting the image of the precious stones, Russia will be the proverbial elephant in the room.

The world’s biggest producer of rough diamonds by volume is due to enter the third month of its invasion of Ukraine next week, with recent mounting claims of civilian casualties and atrocities, including the discovery of mass graves.