The same Russia that IS bombing civilians in Ukraine?
The same Russia that sending drones over G-20 meeting countries?
Yup….
The American President see’s NO problem with this since it’s meeting room, eh?
Russia’s finance minister made a surprise appearance at a gathering of top global economic policymakers on Monday after a prolonged absence, an invitation that was extended by the Trump administration but drew rebukes and protests from European officials committed to isolating Moscow for its war against Ukraine.
The summit of finance ministers and central bankers from the Group of 20 nations, in the mountain town of Asheville, was billed by the Treasury Department as a chance to find global cooperation on new economic punishments for Iran and new strategies to boost growth at a time of stubbornly high inflation and rising borrowing costs that are straining government budgets.
Instead, the meeting opened on Monday morning with European outrage over the Russian finance minister, Anton Siluanov, who was physically in attendance for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Lars Klingbeil, the German vice chancellor and finance minister, told reporters that he had scolded Mr. Siluanov during an early session of the meeting for the invasion, demanding that Russia end the war and pledging ongoing support for Ukraine, which was not represented in person at the gathering.
Serhiy Marchenko, Ukraine’s finance minister, is expected to participate by video conference on Monday afternoon in a meeting of finance ministers from the Group of 7 nations that France is leading. France is host of the G7 this year and will be holding the meeting on the sidelines of the broader G20 gathering.
European leaders have worked to isolate Russia in the global economy and on the diplomatic stage, and, at a moment in the war when Moscow has relentlessly bombarded Kyiv, they did not want anything at the meeting to suggest that has changed.
“Receiving the Russian finance minister here sends a signal I find troubling,” Mr. Klingbeil told reporters on Monday afternoon. “I would have preferred clear positioning from the U.S. side that he not be received like a regular guest.”
Mr. Siluanov’s presence was not announced publicly by American officials before the summit, and White House officials did not respond to questions on Sunday over whether he had been invited. His appearance came as President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia was set to join President Xi Jinping of China and President Masoud Pezeshkian of Iran at a summit in Kyrgyzstan. China’s finance minister and the head of its central bank were, as is typical, also in attendance at the G20 meeting.
Mr. Klingbeil said European representatives had unanimously demanded that their American hosts not include Mr. Siluanov in a traditional group photo from the summit, threatening to boycott if he was in the picture.
It was eventually taken without him, and with the Europeans.
Many Europeans were also upset that representatives from South Africa, a longtime member of the G20 and Africa’s largest economy, were not invited by the Treasury Department to Asheville. President Trump announced last year, after skipping a G20 summit hosted by South Africa, that he would exclude the country from this year’s meetings, citing a false narrative that white South Africans were being indiscriminately killed and that their land was being seized……
image…Gerald Herbert/Associated Press
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