Delegates from several European nations walked out of an International Monetary Fund steering committee meeting in Bangkok on Saturday when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov began addressing the gathering in Russian.
Nearly a dozen officials left the room during the speech, according to people present at the session. The walkout included representatives from European Union members such as Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
The walkout occurred during the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, highlighting persistent diplomatic rifts over Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The International Monetary and Financial Committee has been unable to agree on joint consensus statements since the conflict began.
The Bangkok incident followed criticism from Germany, which warned on Thursday against rehabilitating Russia on the world stage after Siluanov attended a gathering of G20 finance ministers and central bank chiefs. That earlier appearance took place just over a month after the United States hosted him in Asheville, North Carolina, marking his first in-person G20 attendance since the invasion.
Washington, which currently leads the G20, defended its decision to include Russia despite pushback from European allies. US Treasury Undersecretary Erin Browne backed Moscow's presence, stating: “We think it’s really important if you’re going to solve a crisis, you need to have open dialogue and open conversation.”
The gathering coincided with heightened strain between Washington and Kyiv. At a European Union summit on Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized US President Donald Trump over a diesel deal with Russia. EU leaders backed Zelensky following renewed criticism from Trump, who described Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries as a “disgrace.”
The diplomatic friction comes at a perilous juncture for Ukraine, which faces relentless missile and drone strikes against its cities alongside growing concerns that Washington might curtail intelligence sharing and military assistance to Kyiv.
