G-8
ORG
G-8
Finance ministers from the Group of 8 industrialized nations arrived Friday for a weekend meeting that is sure to revive doubts on Russia's membership in the club. For the first time, Russia, which holds the chairmanship this year, will be the host of the meeting of the G-8, whose other members are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the United States, Canada, and Japan. It is proposing that G-8 governments transfer those payments to the International Monetary Fund or World Bank, which would use that cash to cancel third world debt. Yevgeny G. Yasin, who was economy minister when Russia joined the Group of 8 in 1998, said membership was seen then as an incentive for the country to make greater economic and political reforms. Finance ministers from the Group of 8 industrialized nations arrived Friday for a weekend meeting to revive doubts on Russia's membership in the club. For the first time, Russia, which holds the chairmanship this year, will be the host of the meeting of the G-8, whose other members are Britain, France, Germany, Italy, the United States, Canada and Japan. This position renews a debate on whether the country under President Vladimir V. Putin should even be in the G-8, much less lead a club of capitalist democracies, a description some say only loosely applies to Russia.