FPC launches the 'G8 Scorecard'

30 January 2006

The Foreign Policy Centre is pleased to announce the launch of 'Russia in the Spotlight: G8 Scorecard'.

STEPHEN TWIGG, Director of the Foreign Policy Centre, said at the launch of the scorecard:

"In 2006 Russia holds the presidency of the G8, a club for the world's richest, market-driven democracies – until Russia joined. The Foreign Policy Centre believes that this presidency is a significant event because it raises the old question of whether Russia is an open democracy or a free-market economy at all.

"Russia's chairmanship of the G8 has been a PR disaster with the recent Kremlin crackdown on NGOs and human rights groups and the attempt to cut off energy supplies to Russia's neighbours Georgia and the Ukraine. Vladimir Putin doesn't just need an Alastair Campbell though – he needs to genuinely respect the rule of law and democratic freedoms.

"Following on from Britain's presidency of the G8, and the priorities that the Prime Minister gave to climate change and Africa, Russia's faltering chairmanship of the G8 raises there are fundamental questions about whether Russia should be a member at all. This scorecard will provoke that debate."

The scorecard comes as an increasing number of MPs (now up to 62) have signed an Early Day Motion lambasting Russia's Presidency of the G8. The MPs include former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind and former International Development Secretary Clare Short.

Also speaking at the launch, Andrew Jack, from the Financial Times said:

"The G8 scorecard is extremely impressive as it analyses Russia as a whole. The Foreign Policy Centre is to be congratulated in taking this first ambitious step to analyse a G8 chairmanship, and to assess whether Russia is progressing or backsliding in terms of the seemingly depressing developments in terms of economic stability, democratic freedoms and the rule of law."

The FPC's G8 scorecard is a major instrument for providing objective information by which to compare the policies and conduct of various G8 members. It is the first in a series of scorecards which will analyse Germany in 2007 and Japan in 2008

The key findings of the G8 Scorecard are that:

• the size of Russia's economy does not merit its inclusion in the G8;
• Russia is neither politically nor economically free, according to the principles set out in the founding declaration of the G6 at Rambouillet in 1975;
• Russia's presidency of the G8 is correspondingly anomalous;
• the other G8 nations must develop a concerted policy to force Putin to live up to his international obligations.

Download the report (320 kilobyte PDF; need help viewing PDFs?)