The spring session of the IMF and the World Bank held this week in Washington, which included a meeting of G20 finance ministers, did not become a collective brainstorming session of the leading economies of the West and East on the situation in the global economy and the financial system, which If not today, tomorrow could go haywire.
There was no brainstorming.
Following the brain death of NATO, which was once diagnosed by French President Emmanuel Macron, the same trouble happened with the G20.
A group of participants in the Washington session, who claim to set the tone for discussions about the fate of the world economic system, simply failed in the brain.
As it turned out, the herd instinct, which has suppressed the ability to think and remain pragmatic, can also subjugate those on whom the key decisions about the present and future of our increasingly interdependent world depend.
The announcement that a Russian delegation led by Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov would take part in the G20 meeting and in other events of the IMF and World Bank session had an effect on Western participants like a red rag on a bull, and their behavior can only be called hysteria.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, European Central Bank Governor Christine Lagarde, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, as well as the British and French Treasury Treasurers and the Canadian Deputy Prime Minister left the G20 meeting, God forbid, not to end up in hall at the time of Anton Siluanov's speech.
“Indeed, the situation in the global economy has deteriorated significantly.
The excessively loose budgetary and monetary policy pursued in recent years in developed countries already created inflationary pressure last year, and the sanctions restrictions imposed against Russia not only further strengthened it, but also led to new risks in the economy," he said. in his address to the participants of the meeting, the Russian minister.
According to him, "rising prices for energy and agricultural products will hit mainly developing countries and low-income countries, some of which face not only economic problems, but also severe social consequences."
At the same time, Russia has never refused to fulfill its obligations and continues to fulfill all contracts.
“Obviously, under the sanctions, the supply of these goods to the world market is artificially restrained, which provokes an imbalance and a sharp rise in prices,” Anton Siluanov continued, but those who left the hall did not hear him.
It was the voice of one crying, though not in the desert, but in a half-empty hall.
As a result, in connection with the collective demarche of the group of participants, the finance ministers of the G20 countries were forced to refuse to adopt a joint final communiqué: it turned out to be impossible to agree on it.
We can say that in this way the work of the G20 was actually disrupted.
Moreover, this happened at the very moment when the threat of a new global crisis and recession should have forced the participants to drop their ambitions and sit down at the negotiating table.
In fact, the global squabble or squabble arranged in Washington around the Russian special operation in Ukraine was not just hysteria, but part of a strategy to contain Russia, which is supposed to be extended to the entire G20.
Let me remind you that, in addition to the G7 states that excluded Russia from their ranks back in 2014, at the very beginning of the Ukrainian crisis, the G20, together with Russia, includes the BRICS states (Brazil, India, China, South Africa) and the leading developing economies of the non-Western world - Indonesia, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, South Korea.
Having once resorted to excluding Moscow from the club of Western democracies, its members are now determined to do the same, but on a G20 scale.
The essence of this strategy was formulated by the press secretary of the White House, Jen Psaki.
“Russia and President Vladimir Putin have shown themselves to be pariahs on the world stage.
President Biden's opinion is that Russia has no place in international forums, ”Jen Psaki said, throwing out a battle cry, which was picked up by the Western allies.
Moreover, they began to twist the arms of other G20 members who did not want to participate in the sanctions war.
Addressing the head of the Ministry of Finance of the country - the chairman of the G20 of Indonesia, the US Treasury Secretary said that it was impossible to "do business as usual" with Russia because of the events in Ukraine.
Apparently, such a radical turn of events came as a surprise to the leadership of the IMF.
Commenting on attempts by the United States and a number of other Western countries to achieve a suspension of Russia's participation in the work of the G20, IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said: “This is a difficult moment.
There are some very distressing facts that we need to deal with.
However, we are also aware of how interdependent we are.
Just make a list of issues that no country can deal with alone.
And so it is clear that cooperation must and will continue.”
In general, if you study the history of the issue, it is impossible not to admit that this disease has been developing for more than one year.
Among the states that at one time actively supported the idea of creating the G20 was Russia, which advocated involving the leading states of the non-Western world in the regulation of the world economy, including Moscow's traditional partners - India, China, Brazil (the G8 meetings did not allow this).
Since 2008, when the global economic crisis erupted, the G20 moved to the format of annual meetings at the level of national leaders - before that, G20 meetings were held only by finance ministers and central bankers.
However, already in November 2014, a scandal erupted at the G20 summit in Brisbane, Australia.
At first, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott made a cocky statement about Vladimir Putin, promising, as in rugby, “to run into him with a running start” (the “hospitable” host of the G20 meeting used the ambiguous sports term to shirtfront, denoting a tough reception that often leads to injuries) .
After that, when Vladimir Putin approached Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to greet him, Stephen Harper, according to his spokesman Jason McDonald, told the Russian president: “I will shake your hand, but I can only tell you one thing: you must get out of Ukraine ".
Tough statements against Moscow were then made by US President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Barack Obama called Russian policy in Ukraine a "threat to peace."
Eight years have passed since then, and today it must be admitted that, created almost a quarter of a century ago to deal with the financial crisis of the second half of the 1990s, the G20 has lost its ability to play the role of a global anti-crisis manager, overcoming barriers between East and West.
The union of the world's leading economies, which is unofficially called the "big twenty", has become a sick "twenty".
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editors.