I do not think De Beers would walk away from this situation if it were economic. However, there may be more to this story than I know. It may be that conveying Lomonosova to Alrosa might be part of the contract extension story. As you can see on the screen, I have gotten to the part of this story that is near and dear to my heart and that is the Grib diamond pipe. Once transferred, the license and the business of developing the Grib Pipe will be governed by Russian Security Laws passed in the early 1990s.
Contractual relationships are impossible to enforce under existing Russian law.
We have been through six Prime Ministers and two Presidents in Russia during the last 25 months. It has been difficult just to keep the players straight, talk about getting a license transferred. President Putin has been in power now for about 150 days. He has capitalized on a voter mandate, high opinion poll ratings and an economy buoyed by strong oil prices. He has laid out an economic program that has won praise from western governments and pushed a new tax code through a cooperative parliament.