Donald Trump handed Russia back its G20 seat on Monday. His allies say nobody warned them.
Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov sat at the G20 finance ministers meeting in Asheville, North Carolina — the first Russian official at the table in person since Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Al Jazeera reported. The United States, this year's host, never announced he was coming. European ministers say they discovered him when the talks opened.
The Europeans answered with the group photograph. Germany's Lars Klingbeil, Poland's Andrzej Domański, the European Central Bank's Christine Lagarde and Britain's finance minister refused to stand in it with Siluanov, Brussels Signal reported. The photo was taken without him. "Receiving the Russian finance minister here sends a signal I find troubling," Klingbeil said, calling the seat "an attempt at normalisation." Domański put it plainer: "We do not trust Russia. They lie constantly."
Trump shrugged. "We like getting along with everybody," he said. "One of the reasons I'm so successful, I get along with everybody."
Getting along had a schedule. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met Siluanov privately on the sidelines — the highest-level face-to-face between the two governments' money men since the invasion.
