Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and three top Democratic senators said Tuesday in a letter to President Donald Trump that Russia should not be readmitted to the Group of Seven nations until it "undertakes demonstrable actions to show its willingness to behave responsibly both domestically and abroad."
The senators said in the letter, which was posted to Twitter, that the Kremlin should not be allowed back in "under no circumstances" until the changes are made.
The letter was also signed by Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, and Mark Warner of Virginia.
Menendez is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, while Warner holds the same title on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Reed is a member of the Intelligence panel.
Russia was expelled from the G-8 in 2014 after President Vladimir Putin invaded and annexed Crimea in violation of international agreements.
President Trump suggested at the G-7 meeting in France last weekend that Moscow should be allowed back into the group and that he would consider inviting Putin to next year's meeting in the U.S.
According to the Democrats, Russia "does not currently possess the democratic institutions nor the economic capacity to rejoin the group, and the Putin regime's actions since its expulsion in 2014 demonstrate that the Russian government is not prepared to productively contribute to the efforts of the G-7."
They also listed some of the other negative actions Russia has undertaken since its banishment, including meddling in U.S. elections; supporting Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria; the chemical-weapons attack on a former Russian double agent in Salisbury, England, last year; and the persecution of political adversaries and minority groups in Russia.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.