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Russian diamonds in our jewelry stores? How the stones can find their way to Switzerland despite the war.
The “Kassen Rush” reporter dresses up. He visits jewelry stores on Zurich’s Bahnhofstrasse and is interested in diamond jewelry. You can also buy this online. “Kassenrutsch” generally wanted to know from the largest jewelry companies in Switzerland: Do you also sell “diamonds” from Russia?
The sample in the stores and the official survey provide similar results: Bucherer, Cartier, Christ, Gübelin, Meister, Rhomberg and 77 Diamonds all write that they currently have no Russian diamonds on offer.
Legend:
Transparency about the origin of diamonds should also be guaranteed.
Cash collapse
Conflict researcher and industry expert Hans Merket from the diamond metropolis of Antwerp cannot believe this: “Russia produces a third of all diamonds worldwide and continues to sell them. These diamonds continue to be traded on international markets. It’s hard to believe that they don’t end up in Switzerland too.” There is a high probability that dealers and jewelers in Switzerland are selling Russian diamonds – even if they may not know it themselves.
Remarkable: Some companies such as Rhomberg and 77 Diamonds do not rule out the possibility that they still have Russian diamonds in their range, for example from previous purchases before the Russian attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia supplies the rough diamonds to major global trading centers such as Antwerp, Dubai and Mumbai. The stones are traded back and forth and mixed with diamonds from other countries. This makes it difficult to determine the origin.
The dealers then send the diamonds to be cut. 90 percent of all diamonds are cut in India. Given the huge quantity, it is impossible to know the origin of all the stones.
Fake certificates are intended to calm your conscience
If Swiss jewelry companies explicitly don’t want Russian diamonds, you might as well be inventive, says SRF India correspondent Anne-Sophie Galli, who researched on site: “A large dealer told me: If Swiss customers want confirmation that the diamonds are not from Russia – then he should issue such a confirmation.” Even if he doesn’t really know where the diamonds came from.
The confirmations from Indian suppliers cannot always be relied upon. One thing is certain: Russia supplies India with large quantities of diamonds. To stop the trade, global sanctions would be needed, says conflict researcher Hans Merket: “We now need an internationally coordinated approach to ban the import of Russian diamonds. There needs to be a traceability system that requires the industry to document the origin of the diamonds.”
The alternative: artificial diamonds
If you don’t want to wait for better traceability, you can use artificial diamonds. This is shown by a visit to the Indian company “Greenlab”. The reactors in the buildings are real time machines. Instead of millions of years, as in nature, it only takes a few weeks for a diamond to form. The diamonds are grown from carbon plates.
In the reactor, the platelets are exposed to great heat and pressure. To grow a one carat diamond stone, it takes 15 to 22 days depending on the color. Cutting and sanding takes another two weeks. After a month and a half the diamond is ready.
These jewelry companies carry lab diamonds and these don’t
Very attractively priced
These stones cannot be distinguished from mined diamonds to the naked eye; the chemical and physical structure is identical. But the laboratory diamonds are much cheaper than diamonds from the mine, says Greenlab managing director Sanket Patel: “A mined diamond would cost up to 16,000 dollars. But because it’s a lab diamond, it costs between $2,000 and $2,200.”
Laboratory diamonds therefore only cost a fraction of the price of mined diamonds. And they have another advantage: “They are easier to track and conflict-free,” says the Greenlab managing director. The promise of “conflict-free” has become even more important because of the war in Ukraine. If you don’t want Russian diamonds, you’re better off buying lab diamonds.