Russian Gold Sanctions — LBMA Delisting and the G7 Import Bans
Russian Gold Sanctions — LBMA Delisting and the G7 Import Bans
The 2022 onward measures restricting Russian-origin gold from the global wholesale market
Russian gold sanctions are the coordinated restrictions imposed by G7 jurisdictions on Russian-origin gold and on Russian gold refiners following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The measures combine private-sector self-policing — principally the London Bullion Market Association's delisting of Russian refiners from its Good Delivery List — with government-imposed import bans by the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, and Japan. The cumulative effect has been to remove Russian-refined gold from the global wholesale bullion market and to require gold dealers across the G7 to verify refiner provenance for any gold delivered into compliance-sensitive channels.
LBMA Good Delivery delisting
The London Bullion Market Association maintains the Good Delivery List, which sets the global wholesale standard for gold and silver bar acceptance. Bars produced by Good Delivery refiners trade across LBMA member networks at zero settlement risk; bars from delisted refiners do not. On 7 March 2022, the LBMA suspended all six Russian gold refiners — Krastsvetmet, Novosibirsk Refinery, Prioksky Plant of Non-Ferrous Metals, Moscow Special Alloys Processing Plant, Shyolkovo Factory of Secondary Precious Metals, and Uralelectromed — from the Good Delivery List. The suspension was the most decisive single act in the broader sanctions package because it removed Russian bars from the central settlement infrastructure of the global gold market in a single business day.
Bars cast by Russian refiners before the suspension date remain technically Good Delivery for grandfathered settlement purposes, but in practice the major bullion banks and central counterparties applied internal rules from 2022 forward that treated all Russian-origin bars as suspect, requiring case-by-case clearance.
Government import bans
The United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, and Japan each imposed import bans on Russian-origin gold during 2022. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) prohibited gold imports through the broader Russian sanctions framework. The United Kingdom imposed a specific gold-import ban in July 2022. The European Union followed with the seventh sanctions package in July 2022, which prohibited Russian gold imports across all member states. Canada and Japan adopted parallel measures.
The bans cover Russian-origin gold in any form — refined bars, dore, jewellery, and gold contained in finished goods. Implementation guidance from each jurisdiction sets thresholds and verification standards; the U.S. and U.K. guidance is the most detailed and is the working reference for compliance officers in international gold dealing.
Effects on the trade
The sanctions reshaped global gold flows in three principal ways. First, Russian gold production — approximately 300 tonnes per year, the second-largest national output after China — redirected from London and Zurich to Asian and Middle Eastern markets, principally Dubai, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates broadly. Second, refiner provenance documentation became standard practice across G7 gold dealing; bars delivered into LBMA member networks now require clear refiner identification at every settlement step. Third, the LBMA Responsible Gold Guidance was strengthened in 2022 and 2023 to address provenance verification more rigorously, with sanctions screening becoming a formal element of refiner accreditation.
Spot gold prices were not materially affected by the sanctions in 2022 — Russian production redirected rather than withdrew from world supply. The 2022 to 2024 gold price rise reflects broader macroeconomic factors (inflation expectations, central bank purchasing, geopolitical risk premiums) rather than supply effects of the Russian sanctions specifically.
Compliance practice
Gold dealers operating in G7 jurisdictions in 2026 follow a standard compliance protocol: refiner identification on every bar delivered, declaration of country of origin for unrefined gold, sanctions screening of counterparties at intake, and documentation retention sufficient for audit trail. Bars produced after 7 March 2022 by any of the six suspended Russian refiners are not acceptable into LBMA settlement; bars produced before that date are accepted only with case-by-case clearance and refiner-confirmed casting date.
For jewellery and decorative-arts trade, the practical implication is that finished goods incorporating Russian-refined gold cast after 7 March 2022 cannot be lawfully imported into the United States, the United Kingdom, the European Union, Canada, or Japan. Pre-2022 inventory and pre-2022-cast gold in antique pieces remains tradeable subject to provenance documentation. The de minimis thresholds vary by jurisdiction; consult current guidance from OFAC, OFSI (UK), and the European Commission for specifics.
Comparable sanctions
The 2024 G7 Russian-origin diamond sanctions follow a similar architecture — coordinated G7 action targeting a specific commodity supply chain — but the diamond measures are more complex in implementation because of the greater difficulty of geographic origin determination for cut diamonds compared to refined gold bars. Gold sanctions enforcement is comparatively straightforward at the wholesale-bar level and harder at the finished-goods level; diamond sanctions enforcement is comparatively harder at every stage.