If you read this blog, then it is highly likely that, like us, you consume massive amounts of media every day about Russia. If that's true, than you are probably as sick as I am of seeing these clever copy editors who think they were the very first ones to make a headline wordplay out of the James Bond movie "From Russia with Love." I am beginning to think that the Canadians are the worst offenders - just see their hockey coverage ("From Russia with Glove"). Every time a journalist pulls this one out, I'm sure a small piece of Sean Connery dies.Now, to make matters worse, the Russian state mining company Alrosa has started hoarding rough diamonds to corner on the market and hedge against currency risk. Now how many times are we going to have to see headline wordplay using the Bond film "Diamonds Are Forever"? Ugh... aspirin please.
From Foreign Policy:
Along with oil and natural gas, diamonds are another homegrown commodity that Russia has managed through politics (rather than good business sense) to varying degrees of failure. Most recently, the New York Times reported on May 11 that Russia's diamond mining and marketing arm, Alrosa, began stockpiling rough diamonds with the government instead of selling them into a falling market. So large is the cache -- an estimated 34 million carats of yearly mine production worth some $2.8 billion, or one sixth of the world total -- that "Russia has become the arbiter of global diamond prices," the Times reports.
So what does Russia want with the stones? (...)
In short, Russia's diamonds are being held by a government that can afford neither to sell them nor to buy many more -- particularly if nearly half of Alrosa's proceeds keep going to Sakha.
It's the kind of conundrum that only luck can fix -- and it just might. Diamond cutters, who weren't buying anything in March and April, now say they are back in the market for rough stones of the Russian sort. Shoppers are returning to jewelry stores. Large diamond operations, especially those in India, have cut the padlocks from their compounds and called workers back. Banks are lending again, albeit at reduced levels. On May 12, Alrosa announced an agreement with 15 Antwerp rough-diamond dealers to sell $500 million worth of goods by year's end.
Thanks for calling these people out...don't these authors know that choosing such a title implies that most of their knowledge of Russia/Russians comes from Bond films?
The article from the NYT only reflects the greed of western powers and agencies for Russian natural ressources and when they give their " advice " on Russian state so-called " mismanagement " , it means " misnmanagement " according to western interests !
Where is the " crime " of stockpiling diamonds , only perhaps in the fact that Russia could become the power broker on the diamond market . When Russian govt took control of Alrosa , there were a rain of article in the western press explaining that Muscovites were " stealing " the people of Sakha which was " advised " throught a network of " Sakhaphiles " NGO's based in New York , Tel Aviv and Brussels .
In the " friends of Sakha " , we coulnd't only find South Africaners or Angolans ............
Senator MacCain has suggested an idea that certianly made a great pleasure to Paul Goble : recognize a " Govt of Sakha in exile " , guess why he has chosen Sakha ?
Russian physicist Mendeleiev said that " Siberia and arctic are loaded with natural bounties which should be used for the well being of the Russian people , the Russian nation and the humanity " .
He has not written that Russian natural bounties should be used for the well being of the share owners of De Beers , Connoco Philips or Rio Tinto !
Daniel, if you think there is the slightest scrap of evidence that the Putin administration is using Russian diamonds, or any other form of Russian natural resource wealth, for the benefit of the people of Russia, you need to have you head examined.
Russia does not rank in the top 150 nations of the world for average adult lifespan. Russian men don't live long enough to collect a single day of their pension. What resources from oil, diamonds, gas or timber are being devoted to this problem? Zero. Instead, they are being spent on nuclear weapons to protect Russians from imaginary threats and provoke a new cold war.
Think about it. Russia's life hangs in the balance.