Russia has no urgent need to return to G7: lawmaker

Russia has no urgent need to return to the Group of Seven (G7) as it has now become a club of U.S. friends, a Russian lawmaker said Tuesday.

"Why do we have to go to the G7, where the United States is in charge and other countries assent? There is a united front against Russia there," said Alexey Pushkov, chairman of the State Duma's Foreign Affairs Committee.

"In current position Russia doesn't need to be part of G7. The organization need to be reformed," he told Vesti FM.

Pushkov also said that Western countries have a false opinion that Russia is not in a good position to be outside G7.

Russia joined G7 in 1998, making it G8. The entry followed years of Moscow's unofficial participation in G7 meetings, in a format called the G7+1.

The seven countries -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States -- boycotted the Sochi G8 meeting in 2014 to protest what they saw Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

On Sunday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier raised the idea that Russia should return to the group as its role in solving major international conflicts cannot be overlooked.

"We will see in a year if Russia maintains this constructive role and then there will certainly be a debate within the G7 (on Russia's return)," Steinmeier was quoted as saying by the German Zeit newspaper ahead of a G7 foreign ministers' meeting in Japan's Hiroshima. Endi