The Dwindling Power of the G7 on Display

As the heads of state and government of what used to be the seven major industrialized countries of the world gathered in Italy June 13-15 for their annual summit, they had to face the fact that they can no longer lay down the law for the rest of the world. Even in their own nations, most of them are very weak, if not on their way out. As a result, they resorted to threats, belligerence and blustering.

The primary target chosen was Russia, with China coming in second, followed by the BRICS nations and any others that defy “the West”. U.S. President Biden summed up the G7’s proudest measures in three points: “We’ve taken three major steps at the G7 that collectively show Putin he cannot wait us out, he cannot divide us, and we will be with Ukraine until they prevail in this war. First is the bilateral security agreement just signed [June 13 between Presidents Biden and Zelenskyy]. Second, a historic agreement to provide $50 billion in value from Russian sovereign assets to Ukraine. And third, an agreement to ensure our sanctions efforts disrupt third countries that are supplying Russia’s war efforts.”

The move that will most damage confidence in the current monetary system throughout the world is to use (read, steal) the revenues from the Russian assets that have been illegally frozen in Western banks since March 2022 to finance the war effort in Ukraine, to the tune of $50 billion. Moreover, the final communiqué demands that Russia pay for the “damage it has caused to Ukraine”, which is now estimated at over $486 bn. (If this same principle were applied to the United States or to European countries for the war damages they caused, just imagine the sums that would be involved…)

And since opposition to the “rules based order” defended by the G7 is rapidly growing both in the Global South and in those seven countries, the leaders also agreed to crack down on free speech. The final communiqué expresses the commitment to exert control over public opinion, for the purpose of opposing Russia, and for any other goal of their choosing, especially during elections – all in the name of defending “democratic values”. The code phrase the G7 uses for the crackdown is countering “FIMI,” or “Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference”.

We also note that the ill-named “peace conference”, held in Switzerland last weekend at the behest of Kyiv, turned out to be a flop. While some 90 countries were represented, only a handful of those outside of Europe were at the level of head of state, most of them from Europe. Argentina, Ecuador, Kenya and Somalia were the only nations from the Global South that sent heads of state, while many, such as China, sent no delegation at all. In the case of Kyiv’s staunchest ally, President Biden was too busy to attend and sent Kamala Harris in his place, but she left after only a few hours, as did German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

The overall result was best summed up by Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. “We are like in a Western echo chamber”, he said. “We are all in agreement, but that is not enough. Without parts of Asia, Africa and South America, we will not be able to get the Russian Federation to change its mind.”