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Russia set to chair the G8

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MOSCOW (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov).

The G8 Gleneagles (Scotland) summit that opens Wednesday will have special importance for Moscow: for the first time ever Russia will assume the presidency of this informal group of the world's most advanced nations. Next year it will host another summit that is expected to take place in the suburbs of St. Petersburg.

A mighty nuclear power, rich in manpower and natural resources, Russia still trails far behind the other seven members of the G8 in terms of per capita income. But there is one factor that makes Russia an influential and indispensable member of G8, if the latter's goal is indeed to make the world's economic advance more stable. This is Russia's growing role as a leading supplier of energy resources.

In the near future Moscow expects to produce half a billion metric tons of oil a year. Distribution of oil on such a scale will affect the prosperity of not only Russia's neighboring CIS countries but also Europe and to a certain extent even the United States.

A substantial number of Russians still live below the official poverty line even though this population group is becoming smaller rapidly in recent times. But this fact may allow Russia to play a special role in G8, which is essentially a club of the wealthy. As President Putin said recently, Russia finds it "easier to understand the problems of countries with transitional economies."

For this reason, Russia is expected to play a proactive role in discussing the G8 summit's major issues: how to help Africa reduce its debts and put trade with its nations on a fair basis. At a recent meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Putin vigorously supported his idea on immediate write-off of the debts of 18 African countries. In fact, Russia has already been quite generous to Africa in this area and, in absolute terms, trails only Japan and France.

The majority of people in Russia understand the need to help Africa. Saturday's Live 8 concert on Red Square in Moscow, where Russian rock groups Agatha Christie and Red Elvises performed on a par with Pet Shop Boys, was welcomed with the same enthusiasm as similar shows were in other G8 countries and South Africa.

It is also true that quite a few people here wonder why we should write off African debts if we are not rich ourselves. But the opinion that Russia should help those who live in worse conditions is gaining the upper hand in the nation's mindset.

Inspired by this broad support, President Putin suggested to French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, who he had invited to attend the 750th anniversary of Kaliningrad celebrations, that they elaborated a joint position of the so-called New Entente for the Gleneagles summit. At the final news conference, he stressed that Russia was ready to take part in programs to write off African debts.

Moscow, Berlin and Paris also discussed another topic of the upcoming G8 summit, notably, the importance of monitoring the implementation of the Kyoto protocol, which aims to restrict greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

President Putin emphasized more than once the need to work with those countries that had not joined Kyoto, primarily the United States. Washington continues to insist that the U.S. may lose millions of jobs and hundreds of billions of dollars if it signs the document. The Bush administration's main argument is that the greenhouse effect has not yet been scientifically substantiated.

Vladimir Putin will most certainly try to lobby Russian interests at the Gleneagles summit. Russia badly needs help of developed democracies to diversify its economy, dominated as it is by hydrocarbons exports. The Seven and Russia need each other's help in equal measure.

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