Russia suspended from G8

Gorbachev

France's foreign minister yesterday said that leaders of the Group of Eight world powers have suspended Russia's participation in the club amid tensions over Ukraine and Russia's incursion into Crimea.
The other seven members of the group had already suspended preparations for a G8 summit that Russia is scheduled to host in June in Sochi.
France's foreign minister Laurent Fabius went further yesterday, saying on Europe-1 radio that "concerning the G8 ... we decided to suspend Russia's participation, and it is envisaged that all the other countries, the seven leading countries, will unite without Russia." Fabius did not give further details.
The US and European Union yesterday announced new sanctions against Russia over its actions in the Crimean peninsula.
The European Union unveiled travel bans and asset freezes against 21 Russian and Ukrainian officials, including Vice Admiral Alexander Vitko, the head of Russia's Black Sea fleet.
But Washington has gone for much more powerful politicians and advisers.
Reacting to the criticisms and actions by the west, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the west has "cheated Russia and crossed the line on Ukraine".
And Putin's top foreign policy aide yesterday ridiculed the EU and US sanctions of visa bans and asset freezes imposed against Russian officials, saying Moscow viewed them with irony and sarcasm.
A Kremlin aide seen as the architect of Putin's tightly-controlled political system called the sanctions against him a "political Oscar."
"I believe these are very comfortable sanctions, I am not experiencing any problems over them. This does not disturb (me)," Interfax quoted Vladislav Surkov as saying.
Ushakov declined to say whether Russia would slap counter sanctions against the West, the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Meanwhile, Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet president, has hailed Crimea's vote to join Russia as a "happy event".
Gorbachev said in remarks carried yesterday by online newspaper Slon.ru that the vote offered the Crimean residents the freedom of choice and justly reflected their will Gorbachev added that the Crimean referendum has set an example for people in Russian-speaking in eastern Ukraine, who also should decide their fate.
Gorbachev, who resigned as the Soviet president on Christmas Day 1991, has voiced regret that he was unable to stem the Soviet Union's collapse.
He has criticised Putin's authoritarian policy, but yesterday said that he supports his course in the Ukrainian crisis.