The decision (instigated by the U.S.) and endorsed by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, and Japan to evict Russian from the G-8 is a fairly empty gesture. First there’s no formal enforcement mechanism for removing a country from the G-8, which has been meeting since 1975, so all the other countries have to do is not invite Russia to their party. The expulsion serves no constructive purpose.

Political relations with the national parliaments of foreign states are cultivated by bilateral and multilateral parliamentary friendship groups. Their purpose is to promote ongoing dialogue with the parliamentary institutions of one or more partner states. Primarily, this involves exchanges of information and opinions with members of other parliaments. In parallel to these discussions with their peers, the groups also organise meetings with government and civil-society representatives.

Russia has never systematically lobbied its interests in Brussels. There is no pro-Russian  lobby at EU level that politically supports Russia, promote its interests in Brussels , and works systematically on improving EU-Russian relations. We’re not talking here about Russia’s ‘public diplomacy and the use of public relations companies such as Brussels-based PR firm GPlus and others or the work undertaken by the Russian mission to the EU working on intelligence gathering and media handling.

The historically developed perception of Russia as fundamentally threatening to the United States’ values and interests strengthened domestic groups in American politics that worked to preserve the Russia-threat image after the end of the Cold War. The anti-Russian lobby in America emerged in the early 20th century and got consolidated during the Cold War. During that time powerful elites with mutually exclusive visions were formed on both sides of the Atlantic.