Delegates walk out as Russian minister speaks at IMF meeting, sources say

BANGKOK — Many delegates to the International Monetary Fund’s steering committee walked out of a meeting on Saturday when Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov addressed the group in Russian, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

“Many delegations walked out, including members of the European Union,” one of the sources told Reuters.

A second official in the room said nearly a dozen delegates left when Siluanov began speaking. Delegates from Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were among those who left, the official said.

“The Ukraine war is existential for us in Europe,” one European diplomat said. “We cannot normalize relations with Russia.”

The walkout underlines deep divisions at this week’s annual IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. The International Monetary and Financial Committee has failed to reach consensus statements since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Germany warned on Thursday against efforts to bring Russia back onto the international stage after Siluanov attended a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bankers — just over a month after the US had hosted his first in-person G20 appearance since the invasion, in Asheville, North Carolina, as Reuters reported.

US Treasury Undersecretary Erin Browne told Reuters that Washington, the current leader of the G20 nations, supported Russia’s presence despite European concerns: “We think it’s really important if you’re going to solve a crisis, you need to have open dialogue and open conversation.”