MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Group of Eight members refused to come to Russian city of Sochi, venue of G8 regular summit in 2014, citing disagreements over the Ukrainian crisis and have been meeting in seven-state format since then.
"We are not taking any initiative on this issue and we are not going to take," Lavrov said, adding that western partners were "persuading themselves that Russia has to be returned to the 'eight."
G7, established in 1973 by French, German, US and UK finance ministers, was later joined by Canada, Italy and Japan. In 1998, the group was joined by Russia.