Russia suspended indefinitely from G8.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands — “A regime does not spend $50 billion on the Olympics if it does not care about its international reputation.”
That was Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s barbed response Monday to Russia’s suspension from the Group of Eight on Monday over its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and the massing of thousands of troops near Ukraine’s eastern border.
The G8 summit scheduled for early June in Sochi, site of the Winter Olympics, will become a G7 gathering in Brussels just before the 70th D-Day anniversary commemorations in France.
The group, which has no mechanisms for expelling or suspending members, reached the decision by consensus in a meeting convened by U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a two-day nuclear security summit in The Hague.
“So be it,” was the curt reaction of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shortly before Russia’s exclusion from the G8 was announced. Lavrov has been in The Hague to attend the nuclear summit.
“If our western partners believe the format has exhausted itself, we don’t cling to this format,” Lavrov said. “We don’t believe it will be a big problem if it doesn’t convene.”
Harper replied: “I am not surprised at the kind of cavalier reaction of Putin and then to strut and shrug off any reaction. That is how he handles these things.
“We believe that these actions being taken by ourselves and our partners in the G7 … are meaningful. Russia’s increasing diplomatic isolation is not, we believe, trivial.”
The G7 threatened, if Russia doesn’t change its behaviour, to up the ante by introducing “sectoral sanctions,” including the targeting of Russia’s vital oil and natural gas industries.
“In particular, we are tasking our energy ministers to meet because that is a sensitive area,” Harper said. “We know energy is important and that is why we are determined to continue the work over the long term and develop a plan that is effective over the long term.
“The reaction to the illegal occupation of Crimea is not going to be brief. This is going to be ongoing pressure to indicate that a large part of the world community is simply never going to accept this because it is a precedent that is just too dangerous for global peace and security.”
The G7 “condemned” Russia’s annexation of Crimea in a document called The Hague Declaration that was more strongly worded than expected. It described as “illegal” the referendum held in Crimea eight days ago that resulted in 96.7-per-cent support for union with Russia and affirmed “our support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence.”
“International law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state’s territory through coercion or force,” the declaration says. “To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built. We condemn the illegal referendum held in Crimea in violation of Ukraine’s constitution. We also strongly condemn Russia’s illegal attempt to annex Crimea in contravention of international law and specific international obligations. We do not recognize either.”
In another potentially difficult development for Russia, Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, hinted Monday that China sided with the G7.
“China has always held a ‘just and objective attitude’ toward the Ukraine crisis,” Xinhua said, quoting President Xi Jinping after he met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday.
China proposed an international co-ordination mechanism for solving the crisis and urged all parties not to do anything “that might lead to the further deterioration of the situation,” Xi said.
Earlier, Lavrov met for the first time with Ukraine’s acting foreign minister, Andriy Deshchytsya. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry also attended the meeting.
For Ukraine to achieve peace and stability, “largescale constitutional reform is needed, which will involve all regions,” Lavrov was quoted as saying by Voice of Russia, the Russian government’s international radio service.
Meanwhile, in Kyiv on Monday, the transitional government ordered its remaining soldiers in Crimea to return home.