Senator Alexei Pushkov commented on Donald Trump’s statement on the exclusion of Russia from the G8.
Recently the American leader, in response to the call of his rival in the presidential race, Joe Biden, not to invite Moscow to the G7 summit, noted that it was victory in the international arena that caused its exclusion. Trump said that the Russian authorities “have significantly outpaced” the administration of Barack Obama.
According to Pushkov, an acute crisis in relations between Moscow and Washington arose as early as 2013 due to disagreements over Syria. Another stumbling block was the situation in Ukraine in 2014.
At the same time, the senator noted that Trump himself can not boast of success on these fronts.
“It is more likely that Russia continues to firmly uphold its national interests both in relation to Ukraine and in relation to Syria. Both the Obama administration and the Trump administration do not have enough influence and power on us in this issue. Therefore, I would somewhat balance their successes from the point of view of impact on Russia’s foreign policy”, – he said.
Pushkov also called the G7 an obsolete format.
“There is only the United States and their friends, nothing new is happening there. Therefore, the topic of Russia’s connection is the only topic that enlivens the information field around the G7. Therefore, they periodically put it up. I have the feeling that if they did not discuss the issue of the return of Russia, then all about the G7 would simply be forgotten”, – he said.
Earlier, Donald Trump said he intends to invite four more states to the G7 summit: Russia, India, Australia and South Korea. The participating countries refused to work in the G8 format after the return of Crimea to Russia in 2014.