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Russia being watched as Moscow takes charge of G8Commentary by Hans de
Vreij, 6 January 2006
On 1 January, Russia took over the rotating chair of the group of eight
most industrialised nations, the G8. It's the first time Moscow has
presided over this informal, but influential group of powerful
countries. In 1998, Russia was invited to join the meetings of what was
then still called the G7, but since 2002 Russia has more or less become
a full member.The annual gathering of leaders of the G8 (Canada, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States) always attracts a lot of attention and, in recent years, plenty of protests. This year's summit will be held in St Petersburg and the 'anti-capitalism' demonstrators have already announced they'll be there too. The chances of Bob Geldof organising another a series of concerts to put the G8 under pressure are slim, but in any case, for Russia, being in the chair of the G8 is an historic event. Energy row It was perhaps just a coincidence that last week's row between Ukraine and Russia about gas prices came at the same time as Russia took over the chair of the G8. Turning off the gas supply to Ukraine with the knock-on effect of reducing exports to other countries in central and western Europe has raised doubts about the way Russia's state-run concerns like Gazprom do business. It's perhaps also coincidental that the subject of 'energy' is high on the agenda for this year's G8. According to President Vladimir Putin, Russia will launch new plans for the future of natural energy sources, the safe storage and transportation of oil and gas and the future of nuclear energy. Also the issue of trade in oil and gas is expected to be discussed and therefore the touchy subject of 'Ukraine' will stay uppermost in people's minds. Above all, Russia is, of all the G8 members, the most important producer and exporter of energy, so it's not very surprising that this will be a major point of discussion. G8 agenda Russia also wants to push for the cancellation of the national debts of the former Soviet republics in central Asia. Many of the other issues on the G8 agenda are now familiar: poverty in Africa, the fight against terrorism, mediation in regional conflicts, combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction and, last but not least, the world economy. As to the last point, it'll be interesting to see if this year Russia will not only hold the chair, but will also be promoted to being a full member of the G8 in the area of finance and economics. Although Russia has belonged to the group since 2002, when there are economic discussions and the finance ministers meet up, the group reverts to its previous name, G7. The large amount of state interference in Russia's economy, restrictions on the convertibility of the ruble and issues such as the 'earthquake' which the country's debt crisis caused on the financial markets in 1998, have meant that Moscow has still not been regarded as a fully fledged partner in financial matters. Russia not rich enough And there's another problem: officially the G8 is an informal gathering of the richest democratic industrial nations. Russia definitely doesn't belong to the richest countries in the world, not even in the top ten. Countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Sweden, for example, have a larger gross domestic product than Russia. Also, the definition of democratic is, according to some observers, still far from applicable to Russia. Recently the country's status was changed by US think-tank Freedom House from 'partly free' to 'not free'. But it seems inevitable that the other seven countries of the G8 will want to keep Russia in the club. It's not only the world's second largest nuclear powers but also the most important supplier of energy for a considerable part of Europe and Asia. As regards Russia becoming a full member, this year could provide it with an opportunity to make a good impression. In 2002, the G8 decided to put aside 20 billion dollars for the task of getting rid of antiquated weapons of mass destruction, the largest amount the G8 has ever allocated to any project. But in the meantime, Moscow has been blessed with an enormous surplus from the growth in oil and gas prices. Perhaps that could be put to better use in ridding the country of old nuclear weapons and other dangerous materials, for - as time goes by - it seems rather strange that Moscow is still holding out its hand to the 'rich' West to help finance these urgent projects. |
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