De Beers announced that it has formally signed a memorandum of understanding on rough diamond supply arrangements for 2006-2008 with the Russian diamond mining monopoly Alrosa on May 9, 2006 with De Beers Managing Director Gareth Penny and Alrosa President Alexander Nichiporuk in attendance.

The MOU complies with the commitment that De Beers made to the European Commission, which was announced on February 22, 2006 under which De Beers is to reduce the amount of rough diamonds it buys from the Russian diamond monopoly from $600 million in 2006 to $500 million in 2007, $400 million in 2008 and nothing from 2009 onwards.

Under a previous but now abrogated deal with the European Commission, Alrosa was to have been allowed to sell $275 million worth of rough a year to De Beers after the phased reduction. The European Commission has been investigating both companies on antitrust grounds since 2002, when they had agreed to a deal under which Alrosa was to sell $800 million worth of rough to De Beers every year for five years. In practice, Alrosa rough sales to De Beers totalled $677 million in 2002, $635 million in 2003, $651 million in 2004 and $696 million last year.