MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin will sit in on a session of the Group of Seven finance ministers that opens September 16 in Singapore, a ministry spokesman said Thursday.
Russia joined the G8, then G7, in 1997 under President Boris Yeltsin. The country was admitted to the club as a sign of appreciation of its economic reforms and progress toward democracy. The country hosted its debut summit of the G8 in St. Petersburg July 15-17.
"The minister will take part in a meeting of G7 finance ministers," he said. "The meeting will be held in Singapore in the course of annual consultations between the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank."
He also said Kudrin was scheduled to have bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other states, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and the finance ministers of Moldova and Madagascar.
