Putin's diamond firm off the hook in EU sanctions

The EU is giving Russia carte blanche to keep selling diamonds to Antwerp and the rest of Europe, despite grave escalation in Ukraine.

It had been planning to blacklist Russian diamond-mining giant Alrosa under original EU Commission proposals seen by EUobserver.

Alrosa had directly financed a new Russian naval submarine as well as feeding billions of euros a year into the Kremlin's war chest, the EU had...