President Donald Trump attended the G7 meetings in Alberta, Canada, on Monday and during a press conference, he criticized the expulsion of Russia from the organization. He called it a “very big mistake and said, “The G7 used to be the G8. Barack Obama and a person named Trudeau didn’t want to have Russia in.”
Trump’s statement contained a factual error and left out important context about Russia’s dismissal from the G8. The G8 dismissed Russia in March 2014, but it was not the work of “Obama and a man named Trudeau.” Trump was referring to former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but Trudeau did not become prime minister until 2015; Stephen Harper was the prime minister in 2014. Trump also left out the fact that the G8 acted to remove Russia because of its annexation of Crimea.
Russia invaded Crimea in 2014. With international condemnation but no Western military response on the ground to push them out, the Russians staged a referendum and claimed that more than 95 percent of Crimean voters supported joining Russia. The U.S. and EU rejected the referendum, and the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution affirming Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Harper was a staunch defender of Ukraine during his time as prime minister, and he was outspoken in his wish to remove Russia from the G8. But he and Obama were not the only ones who wanted to expel Russia.The G7 nations were unanimous in their condemnation of the Crimea annexation. The group issued multiple joint statements in March 2014, culminating in a formal declaration on March 24 saying that none of the nations would participate in a 2015 G8 meeting planned for Sochi, Russia, and that they would be meeting in a G-7 format (excluding Russia) “until Russia changes course and the environment comes back to where the G-8 is able to have a meaningful discussion.”
