Russia falls short of G8 standard: UK think-tank

London, Jun 25: Russia does not meet democratic standards for membership of the Group of Eight and its leadership of the rich nations' club risks destroying the G8's credibility, a British think-tank said today.

Russia has gone backwards in its respect for democracy and civil liberties since it took over the presidency of the G8 in January, the Foreign Policy Centre said in a report published before a Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg on July 15-17.

The Foreign Policy Centre is an independent think-tank whose patron is British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

''(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's record is no longer in doubt,'' the report's author, Hugh Barnes, told Reuters.

''He has systematically dismantled Russian democracy and that very fact in some ways makes a mockery of the G8,'' said Barnes, director of the centre's ''Future of Russia Programme''.

The report said the Russian economy, expected to move up to 10th in the world this year from 12th, was not big enough for the G8, intended to group the world's largest economies, and that Russia was neither politically nor economically free.

''Moscow's leadership of the G8 is in danger of reducing the group's credibility and relevance to zero,'' the report said, urging other G8 nations to develop a concerted policy ''to force Putin to live up to his international obligations''.

Putin has rejected similar criticisms of Russia's record on democracy in the past.

The report noted, however, that Russia holds the world's largest natural gas reserves and its oil reserves may equal those of Iraq.

''As world energy demand grows ... Russia's wealth and potential power are certain to grow as well,'' it said.

The Group of Seven leading industrial democracies, the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada, have gradually integrated Russia since the early 1990s into their club to foster democracy and economic reform there. But the report said things had not worked out that way.

It rated Moscow against the G8's founding principles of democracy and economic stability, finding that Russia had failed to comply with G8 norms on open society and rule of law.

REUTERS