G20 meeting: Russian finance minister attends in person

Russia’s finance minister has returned to the G20 finance ministers’ table in person for the first time since the start of the war in Ukraine. Anton Siluanov is attending the meeting in Asheville, North Carolina, at the invitation of the United States, which is hosting the talks on how to get the economy moving again.

Siluanov last joined a G20 finance ministers’ meeting by video in April 2022. Western ministers walked out in protest at the time, while Germany’s then-finance minister, Christian Lindner, stayed and responded to the Russian minister’s address alongside the G7 countries.

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If he came, it would probably be quite helpful.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has continued to attend G20 meetings. He was most recently present in South Africa in February 2025 and in Brazil in 2024. Finance and foreign ministers’ meetings help prepare the larger gathering of G20 heads of state and government.

At recent leaders’ summits, Russia was represented by Kremlin officials rather than at the highest level. Vladimir Putin last attended a G20 summit in 2019. That could change at the meeting scheduled for December in Miami. Trump has expressed general support for Putin’s possible attendance, saying, “If he came, it would probably be quite helpful,” and adding, “I believe you should talk to everybody.”

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I believe you should talk to everybody.