CNN
The United States and six other Western nations voted to effectively kick Russia out of the G8 in response to Russia’s annexation of Crimea, a White House statement said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov downplayed the significance of the move.
“G8 is an informal organization that does not give out any membership cards and, by its definition, cannot remove anyone,” he said at a news conference. “All the economic and financial questions are decided in G20.”
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