Russia’s unhappy status as a democratizing, but still potentially threatening, former superpower, played a role, as did its huge energy reserves, which is why China, incomparably more powerful economically but politically beyond the pale, was never invited to join. Indeed, though supposedly grouping the world’s largest economies, the G8 now includes a country with an economy the size of Holland’s, even if it is still excluded from deliberations of the other members’ finance ministers.