US invites Russia's finance minister to G20 talks, drawing European backlash

Anton Siluanov walked into a G20 finance meeting in Asheville, North Carolina on Monday and immediately split the room. The Russian Finance Minister, who had not attended one of these gatherings in person since his country invaded Ukraine in 2022, sat down with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent for a bilateral meeting. It was the first time in four G20 finance sessions that Moscow had sent a representative to the table. The move was deliberate, and it landed like a stone in still water.

The United States, holding the rotating presidency of the G20, had extended the invitation. Bessent and Siluanov discussed financial cooperation within the G20 framework, according to Russia's Finance Ministry. A US official offered a different framing: the meeting centered on President Donald Trump's peace plan for Ukraine. When asked why he had welcomed the Russian minister, Trump told reporters he believed in maintaining relationships across the board. "We like getting along with everybody," he said. "One of the reasons I'm so successful, I get along with everybody."

European officials heard something else in that invitation. Poland's Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said plainly that he was uncomfortable with Russia's presence, though he acknowledged the host's prerogative to invite guests. "We do not trust Russia. They lie constantly, and you need to be really, really cautious while discussing with them," he told Reuters, emphasizing that Russia remained the aggressor in its conflict with Ukraine. Germany's Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil called the decision to welcome Siluanov a "signal I find troubling." During a plenary session, Klingbeil said he had told Siluanov directly that Moscow must end the war and that Europe stood clearly with Ukraine.

The tension crystallized around a ritual. The G20 traditionally concludes its meetings with a group photograph—the "family photo," as it is known. European ministers and central bankers, including European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, coordinated to refuse appearing alongside Siluanov. The photograph was taken without him. Klingbeil later explained the calculation: European officials had discussed Russia's involvement on Sunday and decided that maintaining a channel for dialogue allowed them to deliver a direct message to Moscow. But the very fact that Siluanov had returned after four meetings of exclusion, he said, signaled an attempt at normalization. "That makes it all the more important for us to push back," he said.

The contrast with previous moments was stark. In April 2022, when Siluanov participated virtually in a G20 meeting in Washington, officials from Canada, the United Kingdom, the US, and the European Central Bank had walked out. This time, the US was inviting him in. White House spokesman Kush Desai defended the approach, telling AFP that the Trump administration was working with Russia to broker a deal that would "stop the endless bloodshed that the president has really condemned." He said the administration would not hesitate to talk to whoever was necessary to advance that goal.

Behind closed doors, the message to Russia was more conditional. Reuters and AFP, citing sources familiar with the talks, reported that Bessent had made clear the US would not offer Russia economic relief until the war in Ukraine ended. Trump has been pushing both Moscow and Kyiv toward a ceasefire agreement, though his initial 28-point proposal—which largely tracked Russian demands—drew criticism from Ukraine and European governments.

The meeting itself unfolded against a backdrop of global economic strain. Global debt had reached nearly $353 trillion. An energy shock from the US-Israel war on Iran was rippling through markets. Trade tensions with China were rising. The stakes for these conversations were substantial. Yet the presence of Siluanov, and the European response to it, had made the gathering as much about geopolitics as economics. The US was signaling a willingness to negotiate with Russia. Europe was signaling it would not normalize that relationship. How those two positions would coexist remained unclear.