Russia in the G8

By the early 1990s, the G7 had established relations with Russia, established many on the act of giving aid to Russia from the West, but then the US Secretary of State in 1993 spoke before one G7 summit about developing a new Russia, a foreign policy goal of the new Clinton administration. And so Russian President Yeltsin was informally invited to future G7 meetings. But the G7 was a group of wealthy, industrialized nations and Russia didn’t fit in because it was relatively irrelevant to the global economy, an idea which has changed now because of its energy resources, which are crucial for many European countries, in East and West. But there are political concerns to Russia’s inclusion in the G8�namely the reversal of democratization in Russia, as this analyst cites. That seems to be a concern of John McCain as well, and historically he’s expressed doubts about Russia’s inclusion in the G8. but moving to kick Russia out of the club would be risky for any US President, and Russia is most likely in the G8 to stay, not to mention Russia’s inclusion in dialogues on climate change and the rising cost of food, in addition to the usual political and economic topics of the G8.