Is it G8 or G20? For Russia, of course, it’s both

Studia diplomatica. The Brussels Journal of International Relations. 2010. Vol. LXIII. No. 2. P. 81–90.

Larionova M. V.

The essay attempts to respond to several key questions on Russia’s position vis-à-vis the financial and economic crisis and the G8/G20 summitry. The author takes the questions put forward by the editors and focuses on Russia’s basic understanding of the consequences of financial and economic crisis and estimations of what should happen; the Russian government’s perception of the future role of the G8 and G20, their respective agendas, possibility of a fixed secretariat; G20/G8 place in Russia’ foreign policy and the government position on the relation between the G20 and formal multilateralism. The paper draws on facts and formal documents augmenting the reasoning with citations. It also employs results of comparative content analysis of the summits’ documents to highlight trends on the G8/G20 engagement with multilateral institutions. The author concludes by looking at the opportunities of enhancing G20 multilateralism.

Keywords: G20, G8, многосторонние институты, финансовый кризис, «Группа двадцати», «Группа восьми», financial crisis, multilateral institutions