US levies first sanctions on Russian state-owned diamond supplier Alrosa

The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which administers and enforces economic sanctions, has taken the first official actions against a company operating in the luxury market, the rough diamond mining and distribution company, Alrosa. The public joint stock monopoly accounts for over ninety percent of Russian diamond production and is thirty-three percent owned by the Russian Federation.