How Russia became a player

MOSCOW — By almost any measure, Russia is the odd man out at the Group of Eight table, where the world's richest democracies chart strategies to meet the world's challenges.

Russia has only the 12th largest economy in the world, after Brazil; state control over the economy is growing; and democratic institutions are on the retreat. Yet this year it's Russia's turn to chair the elite club, and it's hosting the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg on July 15-17.

Economically, Russia is a power, its global clout growing along with its oil and gas riches. Its burgeoning ties with China and its entree with Iran make it a player.

The 1991 summit gave then-Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev a place at the table to encourage Moscow to keep its huge post-Soviet nuclear arsenal safe. In 1992, Russian President Boris Yeltsin was invited as a gesture of support for the country's fledgling democracy — and as a degree of political compensation for NATO's eastward expansion into Russia's backyard, which Moscow had vehemently opposed.

In 2002 the G7 made Russia a member and became the G8. That was the year it put forward its plan to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction, pledging members to contribute $20 billion over the next decade to safeguard and dispose of old nuclear, chemical and biological weapons stocks in the former Soviet Union and help weapons scientists retool their skills for civilian pursuits.

Some argue that in spite of its reputation for democratic regression, Russia has used its chairmanship to inject much-needed openness and interaction with grass-roots groups into the G8. This year, for the first time, the so-called Civil G8 of nongovernmental organizations is working in parallel with the leaders to draw up an agenda for action in spheres ranging from the environment to education to human rights.

But Russian activists are less confident, having seen President Vladimir Putin's administration introduce legislation this year severely restricting domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations.