Two dozen world leaders will meet in Russia this week for a summit of the BRICS group, an alliance of emerging economies that the Kremlin hopes will challenge Western "hegemony".
The summit will be the biggest in Russia since the Ukraine conflict began and comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin seeks to show Western attempts to isolate Moscow over the two-and-a-half-year offensive have failed.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to join the event in the city of Kazan from October 22 to 24.
Russia has said it is expecting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well.
Moscow has made expanding the BRICS group -- an acronym for core members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- a pillar of its foreign policy.
The main issues on the agenda include Putin's idea for a BRICS-led payment system to rival SWIFT, an international financial network that Russian banks were cut off from in 2022, as well as the escalating conflict in the Middle East.
The Kremlin has touted the gathering as a diplomatic triumph that will help it build an alliance able to challenge Western "hegemony".
The United States has dismissed the idea that BRICS could become a "geopolitical rival" but has expressed concern about Moscow flexing its diplomatic muscle as the Ukraine conflict rages.
Moscow has been steadily advancing on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine this year while strengthening its ties with China, Iran and North Korea -- three of Washington's adversaries.
By gathering BRICS in Kazan, the Kremlin "aims to show that not only is Russia not isolated, it has partners and allies," Moscow-based political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.
Putin was declared wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2023 over the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine, and abandoned plans to attend the previous summit in ICC member South Africa.
This time round, the Kremlin wants to show an "alternative to Western pressure... and that the multipolar world is a reality," Kalachev said, referring to Moscow's efforts to shift power away from the West to other regions.
Putin has repeatedly accused the West of "provoking" Russia into sending troops into Ukraine, rejecting the idea his offensive is an imperial-style land grab -- despite Moscow seizing four Ukrainian regions and claiming them as its own.
The Kremlin has said it wants global affairs to be guided by international law, "not on rules that are set by individual states, namely the United States."
"We believe that BRICS is a prototype of multipolarity, a structure uniting the Southern and Eastern hemispheres on the principles of sovereignty and respect for each other," Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said.
"What BRICS is doing is gradually -- brick by brick -- building a bridge to a more democratic and just world order," he added.
The West believes Russia is using the group to expand its influence and promote its own narratives about the Ukraine conflict.
Presenting his "victory plan" to lawmakers this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned other countries could feel emboldened if Putin wins on the battlefield in Ukraine.
"If Putin achieves his crazy goals -- geopolitical, military, ideological and economic -- it will create an overwhelming impression among other potential aggressors, particularly in the West, Indo-Pacific and Africa, that wars of aggression could be beneficial for them as well," he said.
Starting with four members when it was established in 2009, BRICS has since expanded to include several other emerging nations such as South Africa, Egypt and Iran.
Turkey, a NATO member with complex ties to both Moscow and the West, announced in early September that it also wanted to join the bloc.
According to Ushakov, all BRICS members will be represented in Kazan by their leaders, except Saudi Arabia, which will send its foreign minister.
The absence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Kingdom's de facto leader, has fuelled speculation about disagreement between two of the world's biggest energy heavyweights.
"It is clear that the Kremlin wanted to see the Crown Prince," Kalachev said, but added that on the whole, "everything is going rather well for the Kremlin."
© 2024 AFP
24 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
Still the shortest pole in the world.
TaiwanIsNotChina
He should know better than to visit a war criming state.
TaiwanIsNotChina
What a clown.
International law russia can break?
BRICS is an investment club, nothing more.
Where democracy can mean as little as you want it to mean, presumably.
Underworld
Nope. It won't.
Nobody would be trying to isolate Putin if he wasn't such a war monger.
Zaphod
Well, Putin has a valid point, and this is an opinion article and not news. Anybody who writes something as simplistic as this either does not know any history or has an agenda.
JJE
Good to see Moscow standing tall for public decency and equality between decent sovereign nations as the world inevitably transitions from a unipolar "rules-based-order" hypocrisy to a multipolar mutual era of global cooperation and engagement.
Certain quarters object to their unilateral hegemony being undermined. Stuff them.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Javelins and training are not an armed attack in this world.
JJE
Positive to also see the UN visiting and onboard with multipolar engagement. Also important to observe said organization recognizes Russian sovereignty over all lands/islands pre-2014. Their own geospatial/mapping agency attests to this fact.
TaiwanIsNotChina
The "public decency" of violating the UN charter and three other treaties at will apparently.
Also important to observe that many of russia's disgraces are highlighted on the very same page, including the russian disgrace in Ukraine.
JJE
When this conflict is settled in the future, inevitably the same UN agency will move lines on the map, consistent with an expanded Russia. This will be one the conditions for resolving the limited ground operation.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Unlimited russians into the ground I guess.
Wick's pencil
The country the UN headquarters is located in is a much greater war criminal.
JJE
Javelins and training were a serious violation of the Minsk Agreements. However, that is water under the bridge: future neutral-buffer west Ukraine need not worry about such things.
Some dude
I've never had an entirely positive view of humanity, and the comments on this thread show me why. There are people here who are openly wishing for the destruction of Ukraine, presumably for reasons best known only to themselves.
Pure, undiluted evil, openly shown and paraded with glee.
Primusinter
A question on the article. Who is it Konstantin Kalachev? That one - the general secretary of the beer lovers party? Congratulations! Your authors have started asking the expert opinion of customers at the counter in the market.
JJE
No one has called for the "destruction of Ukraine" (except the leadership there).
An attitude adjustment is an entirely different kettle of fish.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Sources of current war crimes? Or is this the helping Israel is a war crime claim?
TaiwanIsNotChina
Highly unlikely that weapons and training outside Ukraine were a violation of Minsk.
You literally just said you want to remove most of Ukraine's population centers and ability to have an army. The astute reader will note that that is the end of independent Ukraine.
Underworld
Zaphod
Putin has repeatedly accused the West of "provoking" Russia into sending troops into Ukraine, rejecting the idea his offensive is an imperial-style land grab -- despite Moscow seizing four Ukrainian regions and claiming them as its own.
Yeah, right! So how did Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine constitute a provocation by the West.
Putin is a clown and anyone who uncritically believes his talking points risks being the same.
Peter14
BRICS will never be anything but the "B" team. Many members are in both camps, being in the West sphere as well as BRICS, to get maximum benefits. They do that to minimize exposure to the influence of Russia and China who see themselves as the rulers of BRICS with all members subservient to them.
Zaphod
JJE
Oh yes, that good old "rule-based order", meaning Washington-based order.
In the event, the writer is trying to play down what is an existential threat to US hegemony. The more nations join BRICS, the weaker the US becomes as self-appointed world policeman.
Primusinter
I'm not going to have a discussion with Duda, but this phrase prompted me to clarify the misunderstanding. No one wants the destruction of Ukraine, God forbid. Just make it clear to yourself that there cannot be a country next to Russia that would have so much hatred that NATO incites in them. The verbal promise that "after the end of the war, Ukraine will be accepted into NATO" is absolutely unacceptable for Russia. Either a neutral Ukraine with a documented promise not to deploy military bases and other military intentions, or a complete takenover (not destructed Ukraine) Ukraine by Russia. Well, and with the remnants of western Ukraine under the rule of Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. There won't be another one. Until you understand this, the war will continue. Although, this evidence is not visible from the sofa :))) This need would still arise in the future, if not now. There will be no more leaders like Gorbachev and Yeltsin in Russia. Pray God it wasn't another Stalin.
Blacklabel
Nobody wants the “destruction” of Ukraine.
the proxy war over, the 100s of billions of our money spent on destruction, all the civilian and military deaths on both sides? We want THAT over.
if lines on a map have to change a little? So be it. That has happened 100s of times in history.
konjo4u
Building a bridge out of bricks? Legos maybe. It is fantasy. But the UN Secretery General, same guy, was in Kyiv when Russia was shelling it. Fine bricks bridge building there.