Nearly a dozen delegates walked out of a meeting of the International Monetary and Financial Committee when Russia's finance minister, Anton Siluanov, began to speak, according to officials present. The protest underscored how deeply Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, continues to divide the institutions that govern the global economy.
One source described the scene to Reuters as a broad departure, saying that «many delegations left the room, including members of the European Union.» A second official at the meeting put the number at close to twelve delegates. Among those who walked out were representatives of Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, the official said.
The gesture reflects a position that European diplomats have voiced repeatedly since the war began. «The war in Ukraine is existential for us in Europe. We cannot normalize relations with Russia,» one European diplomat said. The walkout was not a scheduled protest but a response to Siluanov's appearance at the microphone, and it came as the committee has struggled to produce consensus statements in the years since the invasion.
The International Monetary and Financial Committee, the policy-steering body of the International Monetary Fund, has been unable to adopt declarations by consensus in the period following February 2022, as members remain split over how to characterize Russia's role. Those divisions resurfaced at the annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank in Bangkok, where the walkout took place, and they coincided with fresh tensions between the United States and Ukraine.
The episode also followed Siluanov's participation in a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors, a session that drew a warning from Germany against efforts to reintegrate Russia into international forums. His appearance came just over a month after the United States hosted, in Asheville, North Carolina, his first in-person attendance at a G20 meeting since the invasion.
Washington, which currently holds the G20 presidency, has defended Russia's participation despite European concerns. Erin Browne, a US Treasury under secretary, told Reuters that open dialogue is essential to resolving a crisis. «We believe it is very important that, if you want to solve a crisis, there should be open dialogue and open conversation,» she said. «You cannot have dialogue and you cannot reach a resolution of a conflict if nobody is talking to anybody,» she added.
The diplomatic friction has been compounded by recent exchanges between Washington and Kyiv. President Volodymyr Zelensky criticized at a European Union summit an agreement on diesel reached between Donald Trump and Russia, while welcoming the prospect that European allies might take a larger role in peace negotiations. EU leaders expressed support for the Ukrainian president after Trump again criticized Ukraine, describing its strikes on Russian refineries as «a shame.»
The European Union received Zelensky at one of the most difficult moments for his country, as Ukrainian cities continue to be hit by missiles and drones and Kyiv faces fears of a possible reduction in intelligence-sharing and military support from the United States. Against that backdrop, the walkout at the IMF meeting served as a visible reminder that the war's diplomatic consequences extend well beyond the battlefield and into the rooms where global financial policy is made.