Bessent Meets Russian Finance Minister at G20 as Europeans Boycott Photo — SkimNews
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- Scott Bessent met with Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov on the sidelines of the G20 in Asheville, North Carolina on Monday; a Treasury spokesperson said they discussed Trump's Ukraine peace plan and economic growth.
- Russia's finance ministry said the talks covered bilateral financial issues between the two nations and continued G20 engagement.
- Anton Siluanov's attendance marked the first time Russia's top financial official joined a G20 gathering of global economic policymakers in person since the invasion of Ukraine.
- Lars Klingbeil, Germany's finance minister, told reporters he told Europeans at a plenary session that he would not pose for a photo with the Russian finance minister.
- The European "joint approach" led to the traditional G20 "family photo" of finance ministers and central bank governors being taken without the Russian delegation.
Why it matters: European allies maintained a coordinated diplomatic cordon around Moscow at the financial track's most visible ritual — the family photo — even as the U.S. reopened high-level engagement in the same building. The split means two of the West's most powerful economic blocs are pursuing opposite Russia strategies on the same day in North Carolina, with sanctions as the contested middle ground.
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