G7 leaders agree to suspend Russia

Leaders of seven of the world's largest economies yesterday agreed to freeze Russia out of the G8 nations. The group further threatened sanctions against key sectors of Russian economy if Moscow further invaded or sought  to destabilise Ukraine.

The moves, approved by the heads of the US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and Canada, point to  a growing alignment behind a strategy aimed at prevention of escalation of the crisis arising from Russia's incursion into Ukraine.

However, according to commentators, the Group of Seven nations had in a way acknowledged that the standoff - with Russia in control of the Crimean peninsula and Europe taking slow steps against Russia might pan out over months or years.

In a statement issued from the sidelines of an earlier scheduled nuclear security summit, the leaders agreed that Russia's annexation last week of Ukraine's Crimea region was in "contravention of international law" as also the "shared beliefs and shared responsibilities" of the elite diplomatic club, which Russia joined in 1998.

Revoking Moscow's participation "until Russia changes course", the group shifted the venue of the meeting on the world economy from Sochi, Russia, to Brussels.

"This Group came together because of shared beliefs and shared responsibilities. Russia's actions in recent weeks are not consistent with them," the leaders of the US, Canada, Japan and Europe's four strongest economies said in a statement published yesterday on the White House website.

"International law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state's territory through coercion or force," the statement said. "To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built. We condemn the illegal referendum held in Crimea in violation of Ukraine's constitution."

"We also strongly condemn Russia's illegal attempt to annex Crimea in contravention of international law and specific international obligations. We do not recognize either," the statement added.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, said on the sidelines the nuclear security summit at The Hague, if Russia's western partners believed that this format had exhausted itself, then that was the way it was going to be. He added, Russia would not cling to it, according Itar-Tass reported.

He added, Moscow did not care if the West did not "believe" that Russia had no plans for further expansion into Ukrainian territory, or that the annexation of Crimea was needed to protect ethnic Russians on the peninsula.