Lobbyists urge Russia’s G7 return

Russia should be invited to rejoin a summit of the G7 industrial powers next weekend, the heads of two German business lobby groups were quoted as saying yesterday.

The leaders of the G7 nations held a summit without Russian president Vladimir Putin last year in protest against Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region.

With little sign of the fighting in eastern Ukraine ending, despite a ceasefire deal agreed in Minsk over three months ago, the exclusion has continued for a second year running.