Leave Ukraine to the Russians, says International affairs analyst Jonathan Manthorpe. Excerpt of the column:
It may have slipped the memory of certain world leaders, but 15 years ago it was decided that the G-8 club of the world’s leading economies was too elite a cabal to be of much practical use. So, with Canada’s then-Finance Minister Paul Martin leading the charge, the G-20 was formed in 1999. The G-20 includes the G-8 countries – the United States, Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Canada and Russia – but also includes the major developing economies such as Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa, and Mexico as well as smaller industrialized countries like Australia. Russian President Vladimir Putin, then, may well feel unperturbed about being expelled from a club everyone agrees has little utility and which often seems ridiculous.
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