The reasons why Russia needs G-8 membership

Vyacheslav Nikonov, President Politika Foundation RIA Novosti, Moscow

Why do we need it after all? G-8 is a very informal organization, which does not even have either headquarters powers. This is the most privileged and closed club which incorporates several most influential people of the world. It is not by chance that when experts discuss the contours of a future "world government," it is often seen in the format of G-8, which is to develop into G-9, G-10 and so on. Membership of this club is not just a status that means one's belonging to "the first world." This is, first of all, the possibility to take part in drafting and adopting decisions on key international issues which, in particular, are related to us.

One should not be misled by the formal character of decisions - they are as binding as agreements. It is not worth deceiving ourselves by thinking that there are still problems in the world, which is going globalized, that have nothing to do with us.

The world is as interrelated as never before and Russia needs to uphold its interests in all the parts of the globe.

This could be well illustrated on the example of the past summit which discussed the problems of combating terrorism, as well as those of the world economy and assistance to African countries.

Although the anti-terrorist coalition is led by the United States now, Russia is no less (and perhaps, more) interested in the victory and can help bring it nearer. The activity of the main terrorist groups is being unfolded mainly near our borders, not Canadian or Japanese, or even in Russia proper.

The other day the U.S. FBI made public the information that one of the main sponsors of Chechen militants was the Saudi charitable foundation Al Bir Al Dawalia, which has branches in Georgia, Azerbaijan and Latvia and is directly connected with Osama bin Laden, who is hiding in Afghanistan or Pakistan. It is obvious of all the G-8 members after the USA, it is Russia that can make a more tangible contribution to the rout of terrorist groups, considering our intelligence and operative-technical potentialities, geography and preparedness to combat this world evil.

The times when we met the economic problems of the world's leading countries with ill-concealed malicious delight or did not care about them have long become a thing of the past.

Today, any insignificant event on the U.S. market has painful consequences not only for the European Union or Japan. These days we are witnessing a serious crisis on the U.S. stock and financial markets: Stock indexes are plummeting, while the dollar's exchange rate is rapidly falling, approaching that of the euro, on Wall Street. This has a direct bearing on Russia.

Firstly, the U.S. crisis will cause a decline in Europe too, after which the west will start buying less energy sources and other commodities from Russia. As a result, our producers, exporters and state budget will sustain serious losses.

Secondly, the decline has affected the stocks markets throughout the world, Russia included. As a result, the capitalization of major companies has decreased by several billion dollars. Thirdly, the gold and foreign exchange reserves of the Central Bank, the bulk of which is nominated in dollars, have started shrinking. In the opinion of economic adviser to the president Andrei Illarionov, direct losses from the current devaluation of the dollar are estimated at US$2.5 billion. Lastly, every Russian who keeps dollars has become poorer. And there is a lot of such people in Russia. This is why the measures to back the dollar's exchange rate, discussed at the G-8 summit, were far from having a purely academic character for Russia.

The decision on the need to ensure the safety of the preservation of the Russian potential of mass destruction weapons, adopted at the summit, has a specific financial expression in the amount of $20 billion for us. In actual fact, the point at issue is that a considerable part the money we owe to the west will remain in the country and go to dismantle and eliminate nuclear reactors from the dozens of phased-out submarines.

Even the African subject, which would seem to have lost its topicality, is still pressing for us. As of today, Russia is the fourth largest creditor of African countries and we can make a considerable contribution to assistance to developing countries even without spending additional means. We can do this by writing off their debts, which they cannot pay off all the same. Thereby, apart from other things, we could reduce the social base of terrorism. We have come full circle...G-8 is needed in order to see all world problems and solve them and there are many of them.