Russia's New World Order.

TIME Europe Magazine

Buoyed by expensive energy and a booming economy, the Kremlin is once again flexing its muscles abroad — but very carefully

There aren't many clubs harder to join than the G-8. You have to be at the top of the global heap: one of the very richest industrialized countries, potent enough to help steer the world's economy. And you're supposed to be a functioning democracy too. So when Vladimir Putin opens this year's G-8 summit next weekend at the sumptuous Palace of Congresses overlooking the sea 15 km from St. Petersburg, the famously stone-faced Russian President can be forgiven a brief flicker of a smile. The former kgb officer in East Germany will be in charge of a gathering to which, by any objective measure, he should not have been invited.