(IDEX Online) - The UK announced sanctions on Russian diamonds on Thursday (18 May) ahead of the ongoing G7 summit, where news of further trade restrictions is expected.
"For the sake of global peace and security, we must show that brutal violence and coercion does not reap rewards," said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak (pictured).
"We must redouble our efforts to defend the values of freedom, democracy and tolerance, both in Ukraine and here in the Indo-Pacific."
He said the UK already taken a lead on action on Russian diamonds, sanctioning the state-owned company Alrosa and hiking tariffs by an additional 35 per cent.
The new measures he announced will ban imports of Russian diamonds, as well as copper, aluminum and nickel. Russian iron and steel are already banned. The UK also designated 86 more people and companies from Putin's military industrial complex.
G7 leaders - from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US - are currently in Hiroshima, Japan, discussing additional sanctions, 15 months after Russia invaded Ukraine.