Alrosa plans to partner with a company DTZ-OZGEO, which is an existing joint venture company between Zimbabwe and Russia, as per reports. With this initiative, Alrosa is looking at prospecting diamonds throughout Zimbabwe and also supporting Zimbabwe in diamond sorting and evaluation, reports say.

Zimbabwe has received criticism from Western countries for its home issues of vote fraud and human rights. Reports further say that President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe sought support from Beijing and Moscow, to invest in the country where only two in 10 employable people hold formal jobs. Russia has held political association with Zimbabwe, when Moscow helped train independence fighters. In 2008 Russia vetoed a Security Council resolution by Western countries to impose sanctions on Zimbabwe, reports add.