Interfax: West loses tool of pressure on Russia after its withdrawal from G7 – Pushkov

MOSCOW. June 11 (Interfax) – The value of the G7 has markedly depleted in the U.S.’ eyes without Russia, State Duma International Committee Chairman Alexei Pushkov has said.

“To my mind, the G7 is merely another incarnation of the Western alliance, a club for friends of the United States of America. So, I believe its value has markedly depleted even for the United States,” Pushkov said at a press conference at Interfax on Thursday.

When Russia was a member of the group, the G8 was a tool via which Western alliance countries could pressure Russia and its position, he said.

“Now this tool is gone. The absence of India and China in the group is definitely its weakness because these two countries rank first and third by global GDP parameters,” the committee chairman added.

In the opinion of Pushkov, the West is retiring into its own shell.

“In the middle of the 1990s, Samuel Huntington, the author of the famed book, The Clash of Civilizations, said that the world was unstoppably sliding into a condition of opposition between the West and the rest of the world. He expressed that condition with a formula, ‘The West against the rest’. Now his forecast is coming true,” Pushkov said.