G7 Attack Dogs Disrupt G20 Finance Ministers Meeting, Insist Russia To Blame for Global Financial and Food Crises

July 18, 2022 (EIRNS)—The July 15-16 meeting of G20 finance ministers and central bank governors (FMCBG) in Bali, Indonesia ended without issuing a final communiqué, thanks to G7 representatives—U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, her Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland (whose Ukrainian grandfather edited a Nazi newspaper in occupied Krakow), among others—insisting that Russia’s “unjustified and brutal war against Ukraine” is the sole cause of global financial collapse, hyperinflation, disrupted supply chains and the global food insecurity crisis. Instead of the final communiqué, Chairwoman Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati issued a “G20 Chair’s Summary” consisting of 14 paragraphs, the first two of which are carefully worded to indicate disagreement on the Russia/Ukraine conflict and on the causes of food and energy insecurity. The remaining 12 paragraphs show that members agreed to jointly cooperate in addressing such issues as COVID-19, climate change, economic recovery, infrastructure investment etc.

At the beginning of the gathering, Indonesian hostess Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati called on participants to work together in a spirit of “cooperation, collaboration and consensus” to address such pressing world problems as food insecurity, because “the world is watching us.... The cost of our failure is more than we can afford,” she told delegates. At a separate seminar on the sidelines of the first day of the conference, Bank of Indonesia Governor Perry Warjiyo urged ministers and central bankers to unite, Nikkei Asia reported. “This is a global problem, that’s why a global solution is needed,” he said. “[We at the] G20 are being called on to recover together, recover stronger.”

Undeterred, Yellen went into the conference in attack dog mode. One day before it began officially, she charged that Russia’s alleged war against Ukraine—rather than the negative impact of Western sanctions on the world economy or the gigantic global speculative bubble that threatens to explode at any time—represented the “greatest challenge to the global economy.” Joined by Chrystia Freeland and Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers, she bellowed that Russian officials “had no place” at the conference. She continued that polemic throughout, arguing that Russia “chose this war,” and “is solely responsible for negative spillovers to the global economy particularly higher commodity prices.” In several bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the event, Yellen also lobbied hard for the absurd proposal to place a cap on the price of Russian oil, intended ostensibly to put a dent in Russia’s “war revenues.”

As reported by TASS, the Russian Finance Ministry reported on its website July 17 that the Russian delegation in Bali, including Finance Minister Anton Siluanov who attended virtually, Deputy Finance Minister Timur Maksimov and others, “noted that the use of financial measures as a sanction instrument causes tectonic shifts in the global financial architecture and such shifts are entailing further fragmentation of the global financial system.” Citing Kyodo News, TASS also reported July 16 that “representatives of developing countries,” including Brazil, India and China, also pointed to the negative impact that Western sanctions on Russia had on the global economy.