The diamond industry’s lexicon has dramatically changed during the past few years. Domestic beneficiation, added-value creation, and downstream developments in the producer countries are now the buzz words dominating the African producing countries. These words have also, albeit reluctantly and belatedly, been embraced by De Beers as a basis for its rough allocation policies. In contrast, the world’s second major producer, the Russian Federation, has gone amazingly silent on the subject. Russia’s former president and now prime minister, Vladimir Putin, has made it clear that he wants the federal government to absolutely control the Alrosa mining conglomerate – the position of government on beneficiation (manufacturing) seems unclear or, more correctly, ambiguous.