Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Russian President Vladimir Putin (Photo: PIB)

Moscow: As the Ukraine-Russia war continues, State Duma speaker Vyacheslav Volodin on Saturday opined that the nations who had so far refused to participate in the “sanctions war” were being pushed into forming a “new Big Eight” group with Moscow. While Russia had been part of the original ‘G8’ its participation in the bloc was suspended over Crimea’s vote to join the country in 2014. The new ‘grouping’ includes India, China, Brazil and Iran.

“The group of eight countries not participating in the sanctions wars — China, India, Russia, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Iran, Turkey — in terms of GDP at PPP is 24.4 per cent ahead of the old group,” Volodin wrote in a Telegram post.

The US and other G7 countries – Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy and Canada – he opined had pushed the other nations together “with its own hands”. The Russian leader also claimed that the the economies of the G7 members continue “to crack under the weight of sanctions imposed against Russia”. According to him, the ‘new G8’ was comprised of “countries wishing to build an equal dialogue and mutually beneficial relations”.

Earlier on Friday, President Vladimiar Putin had insisted that it was impossible to “fence off” a country like Russia from the outside. Russia has the opportunity to build partnerships not only with China and India, but also with Latin America, as well as Africa, which “is still sleeping, but is about waking up”, Putin said.