"But Russia has shrugged off the suspension, saying the G8 was never anything more than an informal club.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, also speaking from the Hague, said no-one can be expelled from the G8:
“Its raison d’etre was for deliberations between western industrialised countries and Russia, but there are other fora for that now… so if our western partners say there is no future for that format, then so be it. We are not clinging to that format,” the Guardian quoted him as saying."
RELATED:
Russian standoff in ‘11th hour,’ says first post-Soviet Russian foreign minister
The standoff between Russia, Ukraine, and the West has reached the “eleventh hour,” Andrei Kozyrev, the first post-Soviet Russian foreign minister, told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Monday.
“The [stakes are] still very, very high,” he said. “Let me just remind whoever concerned that Russia is still [a] nuclear superpower. So the [stakes] might be life and death. And maybe sooner than somebody is thinking.”
“It’s [the] eleventh hour for Russians, and for anybody else, to reconsider.”
http://amanpour.blogs.cnn.com/2014/03/24/russian-standoff-in-11th-hour-says-first-post-soviet-russian-foreign-minister/
No cocktail party with the west? I’m sure they’re devastated.
What exactly has the G-8 or G-7 ever done....to be noted in history books?
Other than meeting, mingling, sipping whiskey sours and talking up politics....there’s just not much to brag about.
They’re still in good standing in BRICS - where they have a friendlier audience - that’s the group of emerging global economies - stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
Russia is far from isolated.
The G8 is no big deal. The G20 is a little different. But still...it’s all about money and just like the UN, guess who always gets stuck with most of the bills.
Russia does not qualify to be a member of Gn, with n a single digit:
Russian export in 2012 was $524,564,991,000.
Top ten breakdown:
Mineral fuels including oil: $375,423,947,000 (71.6% of total exports)
Iron and steel: $22,601,664,000 (4.3%)
Fertilizers: $11,176,846,000 (2.1%)
Inorganic chemicals: $7,835,699,000 (1.5%)
Machinery: $7,609,061,000 (1.5%)
Aluminum: $7,281,329,000 (1.4%)
Wood: $6,731,569,000 (1.3%)
Cereals: $6,246,547,000 (1.2%)
Copper: $5,787,339,000 (1.1%)
Organic chemicals: $4,516,890,000 (0.9%)
http://www.worldstopexports.com/russias-top-10-exports/2350
This is a typical third world export mix heavily dependent on raw materials.
Compare this to South Korea with a total export of $548.8 billion in 2012 (i.e. larger than Russia)
Top ten breakdown:
Electronic equipment: $119,084,386,000 (21.7% of total exports)
Vehicles: $70,074,094,000 (12.8%)
Machinery: $58,979,883,000 (10.8%)
Mineral fuels including oil: $57,492,603,000 (10.5%)
Ships, boats and other floating structures: $37,828,429,000 (6.9%)
Optical, technical and medical apparatus: $37,611,611,000 (6.9%)
Plastics: $28,381,150,000 (5.2%)
Iron and steel: $25,375,017,000 (4.6%)
Organic chemicals: $23,284,736,000 (4.3%)
Iron or steel products: $12,467,431,000 (2.3%)
http://www.worldstopexports.com/south-koreas-top-10-exports/2302
The Russians do not know(?) that their export, without the raw materials, is only in the order of $50 billion !
This will get out of hand and we will be unlikely to retain the dollar as the world’s reserve currency.
When the dollar loses it’s status as reserve currency/petrodollar our economy is toast.
There is no law of nature that dictates that petroleum accounts must be settled in dollars.
We might wind up with little gold, scant US production of real goods... just lots of fiat dollars worth nearly nothing.
One less free posh hotel, do nothing political payback junket that Putin can hand out to his friends / cronies.
I’m sure that will get him to remove troops from Ukraine.
Zero, Putin, et al., all fighting each other like Communists do.
Wait, you students of logic. G7 couldn't have suspended Russia, since Russia was not one of the 7. On the other side, G8 cannot be a G8 without Russia!