Izvestia reported that on May 7, US President Donald Trump announced that the decision to remove Russia from the Group of 8 countries with developed industries (G8) in 2014 was an unreasonable act.
If Russia had remained a member of the G8, the world could have avoided some of the current problems, especially the conflict in Ukraine, Trump said. He affirmed that "throwing Russia out" was a "very bad decision".
When talking about the possibility of restoring Russia's membership, Mr. Trump said, "now is not the right time", although in February he expressed his desire to restore the G8 so that Russia can sit at the negotiating table with other members.
On the Russian side, on March 18, Russian Ambassador to the UK - Mr. Andrey Kelin - said that Russia has no intention of returning to the G8, and affirmed that this does not keep Moscow isolated from the rest of the world, despite being subject to a series of Western sanctions.
Also on March 18, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the name "Group of 7 great countries" to refer to the G7 does not accurately reflect the modest scale of reality of these countries.
According to Mr. Putin, the European Union (EU) - which has an economy dependent on the three members of the G7 - also did not record a significant GDP growth rate, in fact only reaching 0.9%.
The G8 became a G7 after Russia was suspended from membership in 2014 for merging the Crimean peninsula.
Current members of the G7 include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US.
