BY DEVON HAYES
Russia was the last to join the Group of Eight, and as of March 24, was the first to be kicked out.
The Group of Eight, or G8, is a gathering of leaders from the world’s leading industrial countries, which includes Canada, U.S., Germany, Italy, France, the UK and Japan. Topics discussed include the global food crisis, the economy and environmental issues.
With the recent and violent events happening in Crimea with Russia’s questionable actions creating a crisis, the leaders of the G8 Summit voted to suspend Russia’s involvement with the group.
G8 will now be known as G7 until Russia stops its bullying and undemocratic ways. Other world leaders have warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that Russia would be suspended, but that didn’t bother him.
The G8 was to meet in Sochi, Russia in June, but has moved the meeting to Brussels, Belgium instead.
World leaders did the right thing by suspending Russia. The Group of Seven meets to plan for the betterment of everyone. If one of the topics of discussion is about developing nations, what is Putin going to suggest? Invading other countries is not really a productive answer.
Putin’s social setbacks – most importantly the targeting of the gay and lesbian community – and hunger for geographical power shows that he represents the exact opposite of the G8 ideologies. According to the Pentagon, Putin may have approximately 40,000 troops along the Ukrainian border, which is understandably a terrifying situation for Ukrainian nationals.
Although the suspension is a checkmark on a list of things major world organizations are doing to isolate Russia as much as possible, it is not enough.
While many speculate the tension will continue to grow between Russia and other industrialized countries, especially the United States and Canada, we don’t believe Putin is brainless enough to start another Cold War.
Just in case, we’ve started stocking up on canned goods.
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