Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is boycott[ing] some G-20 meetings this week that include Russian officials. This is idiotic and tends to send the signal that she is as afraid of “Russian officials” as her boss President Joe Biden (D) is of Russian President Vladimir Putin (or that Biden has ordered Yellen to hide away from those particular G-20 meetings).

The better signal, the stronger signal, would be for Yellen to attend all the G-20 meetings and simply to refuse to engage with the Russian officials, to turn her back on them and engage with others present instead.