Russia Joins G20 Summit After Trump Invite—Sparking Massive Backlash

Russia attended the G20 summit in North Carolina Monday, marking the first time that the nation has participated in the global economics meeting since it invaded Ukraine four years ago.

Russia’s finance minister, Anton Siluanov, attended alongside representatives of the Russian Central Bank at the invitation of Donald Trump. But the diplomat’s presence was not welcomed by all—European leaders spent much of the morning scorning Siluanov.

German vice chancellor and finance minister Lars Klingbeil scolded Siluanov, demanding that Russia end the war.

“I find the signal sent ​by ​receiving the ⁠Russian finance minister here quite troubling,” Klingbeil ​told reporters following the encounter, according to a translation provided by Reuters. “I ​would ⁠have wanted greater clarity from the American side that he ⁠should ​not be received ​here as a normal guest.”

“You cannot simply return to normality,” Klingbeil emphasized.

Tensions boiled again on the matter of the summit’s historic group photo, as European officials unanimously demanded that Siluanov not be included, else they would boycott the photo altogether.

The photograph was eventually taken without Siluanov. Instead, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posed for a solo picture with the Russian official.

Siluanov’s attendance and invitation were not announced by the Trump administration prior to Monday’s assembly, according to The New York Times, though the White House’s affinity for Russia should not come as a surprise. It was reported in April that Trump was planning to personally invite Putin to the G20 leaders’ December summit in Miami, and Trump has advocated for Russian participation in other Western alliances throughout his presidency. In 2018, he argued that Russia should be “at the negotiating table” of the G7. The following year he said the same, claiming that turning the G7 into the G8—with Russia—would be a “positive thing.”

The idea reemerged in 2025, when Trump said it was a “mistake” to keep Russia from the G7 and that Russia never would have invaded Ukraine if it had been included in the economic conference.

As Siluanov attended the G20 summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared at another summit in Kyrgyzstan, where he was set to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.