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Iran N-crisis threatens G8 summit preparations
"Washington still has one lever for pressuring Moscow.... Washington makes it ever more unambiguously clear that the success of the summit depends on Russia's future position on Iran.
Other commentators renewed their questioning of why Russia is a member of the prestigious G8, a club that Russia joined in 1997 on the understanding that it would make strides forward on democratic and economic reform.
Putin's moves are of a defensive nature geared to hinder a US takeover through a pseudo democracy that would bring certain economic reforms beneficial to American businesses and keep the Russian people in poverty. #msg-10633915
Russia's grim experience of energy privatization under democracy shows how a new class of oil magnates quickly send their profits to offshore banks. http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0331-08.htm
LONDON, April 20 (IranMania) - G8 officials met to hone plans for a July summit, but a split over Iran and doubts about Russia's democratic credentials threaten to damage the credibility of the rich nations' group, analysts said, AFP reported.
The meeting in Moscow was being attended by political directors from the Group of Eight countries to work on an agenda for what Russia hopes will be a showcase event in its second city, Saint Petersburg, on July 15-17, Russia's foreign ministry said.
No formal news conference was expected after the talks.
But the issue of Iran's nuclear programme, and Russia's reluctance to support imposing sanctions against Tehran, increasingly threatens to overshadow the summit, the influential Russian daily Kommersant said.
"The unyielding position of Moscow on the Iran question may negatively influence the outlook for Russian-American relations and darken for Moscow the 'celebratory atmosphere' at the upcoming summit," Kommersant said.
The official Internet site of Russia's G8 presidency says the main themes on the agenda are energy security, fighting infectious diseases and educational reform. Combatting terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction are listed as additional themes.
But the United States' focus on Iran could change that, Kommersant said, noting that relation between Washington and Moscow were being increasingly strained by the Iran crisis.
"Washington still has one lever for pressuring Moscow.... Washington makes it ever more unambiguously clear that the success of the summit depends on Russia's future position on Iran.
"Only by refusing to support the Iranian regime can Moscow avoid the necessity of receiving explanations in Saint Petersburg on such themes as democracy, freedom of speech and other not very pleasant things," the paper said, with evident irony.
Other commentators renewed their questioning of why Russia is a member of the prestigious G8, a club that Russia joined in 1997 on the understanding that it would make strides forward on democratic and economic reform.
With such commitments far from fulfilled, a former economic advisor to Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a newspaper article Tuesday that the Saint Petersburg summit would fatally undermine the G8's credibility.
By attending the summit, the other G8 leaders "will demonstrate their indifference to the fate of freedom and democracy in Russia," said the article by Andrei Illarionov, who resigned as an economic advisor to Putin last November, published in the English-language Moscow Times.
"Regardless of how the Saint Petersburg summit proceeds, one thing is clear. The G8 as a club of advanced democratic states will cease to exist," Illarionov said.
Another analyst, Viktor Kremenyuk of Moscow's Institute of US and Canadian Studies, agreed that the omens were increasingly uncertain for this summer's summit in a city that Russia thinks of as its cultural capital.
"Time has passed and Russia is not an ally of anyone in this group. It is in the same position as it was 10 years ago," Kremenyuk told AFP.
"The possibility of some crisis happening has opened up, because it seems no one among the major players wants to change policy" on Iran, he said.
With differences evident not only on Iran but also on other issues, including Russia's ongoing conflict in Chechnya and Moscow's arms sales to China, "whether the sides will be capable of pushing all the dirt under the carpet is now becoming rather questionable," Kremenyuk said.
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