DAVOS, January 22. /TASS/. Russia may return to the group of the world’s eight leading industrialized countries, former Russian Finance Minister Alexey Kudrin said at the Davos economic forum on Friday.
"I’m confident that Russia will return to all the world’s formats, including the G8, after some negotiations or a new dialog. This will happen not because it will become a super-strong economic power again but because it has a set of qualities, including of geopolitical and military nature, which were initially the basis for making Russia part of the G8," Kudrin said.
Russia has never given up its participation in the international community and will be focused on developing a market economy, democracy and integration into the world economy.
"Russia is not refusing this. Today we have a political and geopolitical crisis, which will end. It does not correspond to the analogs of the cold war during the Soviet period," Kudrin said.
Russia perceives itself as part of the international community and will take its requirements into account, the ex-finance minister added.
In Kudrin’s opinion, Russia and the West should rethink the current crisis in their relations.
"It [the crisis] is not accidental and, generally, it has been caused by the fact that at some moment we failed to take each other’s interests into account. As a result of the crisis, we have returned to these tasks. I hope that the first steps towards each other will be made at the Munich conference," the Russian ex-finance minister said.