A meeting between the finance ministers and central bank governors of the G20 bloc of major economies in Bali, Indonesia, turned acrimonious on Friday as Western officials accused their Russian counterparts of creating an economic disaster by invading Ukraine in February, leading to concerns that one side would walk out of the summit altogether.

U.S. treasury secretary and former Federal Reserve chairwoman Janet Yellen, the United States’ highest-level official at the meeting, told a news conference on the meeting’s sidelines that Russian leader Vladimir Putin had harmed the global economy by invading Ukraine, suggesting that Russian officials should not participate, although she did not say whether she would walk out while Russian officials spoke.

“I think I’ve made clear that it cannot be ‘business as usual’ with respect to Russia’s participation at these meetings,” Yellen said, adding that she anticipated the arrival of Ukraine’s finance minister at the meeting. While Ukraine is not a member of the G20, it was invited to participate in the summit by Indonesian president Joko Widodo, commonly referred to as Jokowi, following his “peace mission” to Moscow and Kyiv last month.

Yellen also claimed that she supported hard price caps on Russian oil, which she suggested would decrease global oil prices and restore stability to international markets. “It will give Russia a way to continue exporting oil … and it will help consumers throughout the world, including in China and in India, avoid a spike in global oil prices,” she said.

The treasury secretary also leveled criticism at China for its failure to engage in debt restructuring efforts in developing countries, to which Beijing is the world’s largest lender. She claimed that she hoped to oversee commitments from the G20 to engage in debt relief during the meeting.

When asked about domestic inflation, which the White House recently estimated at 9.1 percent annually, Yellen acknowledged that the number was “unacceptably high” and voiced support for the Federal Reserve’s recent increase in interest rates, making loans more costly and slowing the velocity of money. She also acknowledged that attempts to curb inflation would lead the dollar to appreciate against other currencies—notably the euro, which is now worth less than the dollar for the first time since 2002—and make it more difficult for developing nations to pay off dollar-denominated debts, but countered that developing countries with dollar-denominated exports like oil and other hydrocarbons would also benefit.

The previous G20 meeting, which took place in Washington, D.C. in April, ended after open hostility between Western and Russian officials and did not result in the release of a joint communique.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters.