Finance Ministers from multiple nations and heads of the central banks went out of the G20 meeting when the Russian finance minister, Anton Siluanov, was speaking. This was reported by The New York Times.
Also in attendance were US Treasury of Secretary Janet Yellen, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, and Deputy Prime-Minister and Finance Minister of Canada Chrystia Freeland. Also invited to the meeting was Serhii Marchenko, the Minister of Finance of Ukraine.
Siluanov and Russian officials took part in the meeting virtually. Some finance ministers and heads of the central banks participated remotely as well and turned off the cameras when the representative of Russia spoke.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, Spanish, French and German officials didn’t boycott Siluanov’s speech.
Spain is heading the International Monetary and Financial Committee, the main managing group of the International Monetary Fund. It has 190 country members including the central banks and finance ministers, thus it couldn’t leave the meeting.
However, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that it would be better if the Russian delegation did not visit the G20 meeting.
Earlier, US President Joe Biden appealed for the exclusion of Russia from the G20. Nevertheless, the initiative didn’t find enough support. The Reuters analytics say that other key countries of the G20, including China, India, and Saudi Arabia, veto this decision.