Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 17, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Kremlin agrees with Trump that excluding Russia from the G8 was a mistake, viewing the G7 as insignificant. Russia criticizes G7's global economic role.
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Tuesday that U.S. President Donald Trump was right to assert that it had been a big mistake to expel Russia from the Group of Eight in 2014, but that the G7 was no longer significant for Russia and looked "rather useless" now.
Trump said at a Group of Seven summit in Canada on Monday that the G8 had been wrong to kick out Russia in 2014 after it annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
"This was a big mistake," Trump said, adding he believed Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022 had President Vladimir Putin not been ejected from the leaders' club. He said Putin "basically doesn't even speak to the people that threw him out, and I agree with him".
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We agree with President Trump: it was a big mistake then to exclude Russia from the G8 format."
He said the G7 had "lost practical significance" for Russia, given the state of world affairs.
"Given the declining share of the G7 countries in the global economy, given all the trends that are observed in the G7 countries and, of course, against the background of, for example, such formats as the G20, the G7 looks dull and rather useless," Peskov said.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Felix Light; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Mark Trevelyan)
Trump stated that it was a big mistake to expel Russia from the G8 in 2014, suggesting that Russia would not have invaded Ukraine in 2022 if it had remained in the group.
The Kremlin agreed with Trump, stating that it was indeed a big mistake to exclude Russia from the G8 format, as expressed by spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
The Kremlin believes that the G7 has lost practical significance for Russia, especially in light of the declining share of G7 countries in the global economy.
Trump indicated that Russia's exclusion from the G8 contributed to the current geopolitical tensions, implying it was a factor in Russia's actions in Ukraine.
The Kremlin noted that the G7 countries are experiencing declining economic influence, which diminishes the group's relevance in global affairs.
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