Should Russia have returned to the G7 in 2018?

Should Russia be allowed back into the G7? On 14 June 2018, that question was still fresh after the group's 44th summit, where it had split the leaders days earlier.

On 8 June 2018, U.S. President Donald Trump called for Russia to be reinstated in the group. Russia had been suspended after the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Italy's Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, supported the call. Most of the other G7 leaders rejected it. On 9 June 2018, Trump repeated the demand.

Why the suspension mattered

The suspension was tied directly to Crimea. In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Ukrainian peninsula, occupied it and annexed it after what the background describes as an illegitimate referendum. This came amid the uncertainty that followed Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity. Seen from Kyiv, any move to readmit Russia would therefore have meant restoring its place at the table while the annexation stood.

What the split showed

The disagreement was not simply between Washington and everyone else. Rome backed the American position, while most other leaders did not. The group's members were divided over whether the 2014 suspension should remain in place.

The repeated call on 9 June 2018 showed that the issue had not been dropped after the first rejection. Later, the annexation came to be seen by some analysts as the start of a Second Cold War between Russia and the West, and as the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian war. That was hindsight, not something established on 14 June 2018. On that date, the question was whether the suspension would hold, and the summit had shown that most leaders still wanted it to.