WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The Group of 7 — an intergovernmental forum of the world’s largest industrialized democracies — began meeting in 1975. It became the Group of 8 after Russia joined in 1997, but reverted to the G7 format after the other nations voted to suspend Russia’s participation after Crimea, a former Ukrainian region, rejoined Russia as a result of a referendum in 2014, which has not been recognized by Kiev and a number of Western countries.
"[Russia was] eliminated or taken out of the group due to the situation in Ukraine, so for them to rejoin they are going to have to address the situation in Ukraine," Tillerson said en route to Brussels as quoted in a pool report. "We have been pretty clear with them what that means, it means moving forward with the Minsk accord and restoring Ukraine sovereignty."
On February 14, the White House spokesman said that US President Donald Trump expects Russia to "return Crimea" to Ukraine. Later, Trump reaffirmed this stance, suggesDuring the election campaign Trump claimed he would "consider" recognizing Crimea as part of Russia following the referendum in the peninsula, adding that the Crimeans wanted to live in Russia.
Commenting on the White House statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Russia does not intend to return Crimea to Kiev as it is Russian territory. The Kremlin said that Russia does not discuss issues related to its territory with foreign partners.
Crimea rejoined Russia after a 2014 referendum, when almost 97 percent of the region's population voted for the reunification. Sevastopol, which has a federal city status, supported the move by 95.6 percent of votes.
