The US government has pushed off its original September 1 deadline for importing loose “grandfathered” Russian diamonds by a year.
After the US imposed sanctions on Russian-origin diamonds in March 2024, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released General License No. 104, which permitted US importers to bring in certain nonindustrial loose diamonds they’d purchased before the sanctions went into effect.
Those guidelines accounted for Russian-origin stones that had not yet entered the US — including rough that had been sent to India for cutting and polishing — as long as the goods were outside of Russia before the requisite cutoff dates: March 1, 2024, for 1-carat diamonds and larger, and September 1, 2024, for stones between 0.50 and 1 carat.
The original ruling set September 1, 2025, as the deadline for importing these items. However, the updated General License No. 104A, which OFAC released on Wednesday, delays that deadline for both diamond size categories to September 1, 2026.
The government did not make changes to its original General License No. 103, which references importation of diamond jewelry that was located outside the Russian Federation prior to the March 2024 sanctions date.