Calls for Russia's G20 Expulsion Likely Doomed to Fail

Ukraine has said that the Group of 20 of the world's major economies should expel Russia following its drone attacks on Kyiv, although one geopolitical expert has told Newsweek there was no consensus among the bloc for such a move.

There have been repeated calls to kick Russia out the G20 since the start of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine in February.

Two weeks before the bloc meets in Bali, Indonesia, starting November 15, Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko tweeted that "missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians and energy infrastructure," should preclude the attendance or any Russian representatives at the summit.

"With his hands stained in blood, he must not be allowed to sit at the table with world leaders. Putin's invitation to (the) Bali summit must be revoked and Russia expelled," Nikolenko wrote.

There have been other calls for Russia's expulsion from the group, formed in 1999, which discusses everything from economics to the climate emergency.

U.S. President Joe Biden said in March he agreed that Russia should be removed from the bloc "but it depends on the G20." The same month, Reuters reported how the U.S. and Western allies were looking at whether Russia should remain in the G20.

However, citing a diplomatic source, the agency said that the current G20 host, Indonesia, or members of the BRICS group consisting of India, Brazil, South Africa and China would be unlikely to agree to any expulsion.

In addition, the global world order is pivoting away from the U.S. and EU. Condemnation of Russia has not been as widely echoed in countries outside the EU, the U.S. and their allies, said Jonathan Eyal, associate director of London think tank, the Royal United Services Institute.

"It was rather self-indulgent of Western countries to come up with the idea of getting Russia out of the G20," he told Newsweek. "The Indonesian hosts of the G20 made it clear from the beginning that they have no such intention. There's absolutely no consensus at all in the G20 on the subject."

He said that votes in the U.N. General Assembly in March blaming Russia for the attack may have been "touted as a great victory by Western diplomats," but that kind of "formalized voting in the U.N. General Assembly masked a very big failure in terms of explaining the Western position and narrative."

"There's a widespread belief in the Global South that Russia was egged on, irritated, provoked into this one. There is a deep resentment of the West for all its colonial past and everything else that is definitely much stronger than any suspicion of Russia," Eyal added.

Putin has still not decided whether he will attend the G20 meeting or send a high-level delegation in his place for the first major global summit since the start of the war that has isolated his country from the West economically and diplomatically.

While Indonesian President Joko Widodo wants to use the G20 meeting to press for a resolution, U.S. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has said that Biden has no intention "to sit down with Vladimir Putin."

Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department and G20 organizers for comment.