Putin is organising Russia’s largest event since the onset of its full-scale war in Ukraine. The BRICS summit in Kazan, scheduled from Tuesday to Thursday, is set to host representatives from 32 nations, including over 20 heads of state. Among the key attendees are China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi, Iran’s Masoud Pezeshkian, and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, alongside non-BRICS leaders such as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Global media reactions to the event
In Tatarstan, the summit has generated considerable buzz, leading to the rapid resurfacing of streets, the rollout of new buses, and the beautification of the station square. To further emphasise the event’s importance, students, civil servants, and employees from certain companies have been told to work from home. According to the German publication RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland, these changes highlight just how significant the summit is for Putin.
“When Putin allowed his country to launch a full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, the West imposed sweeping economic sanctions, cut Russia off from the global banking system, and sought to diplomatically isolate it from the rest of the world. Now, Putin wants to showcase in Kazan that this isolation has not been effective,” the outlet notes.
Since its founding in 2009 and 2010, the BRICS group—originally consisting of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—has welcomed new members like Egypt, Ethiopia, and Iran. Moreover, several other countries have expressed a desire to join, including Syria and Azerbaijan, while Cuba has voiced its interest in becoming a partner country.
“The international community today encompasses countries representing nearly half of the world’s population and more than 35% of global economic output, as measured by purchasing power,” notes RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland.
According to global media reports, the conference in Kazan, which the Kremlin has invited 20 countries to attend—including Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Vietnam—attempts to showcase economic strength within a new world order that the West does not dominate.
“One of the most crucial items on the agenda will be the admission of new member states. Expanding the group could fundamentally alter the current global balance of power. This initiative is about forging a new multipolar world,” the publication asserts.
CNN reports that in the coming days, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and his close ally, Xi Jinping, the most influential leader within BRICS, will work to promote the narrative that “the West is isolated in the world due to its sanctions and alliances, while the ‘global majority’ of countries support the challenge to American global leadership.”
Putin’s remarks this week are expected to be particularly pointed, coinciding with the summit just a week before the U.S. elections. A potential victory for former president Donald Trump could result in a significant decrease in American support for Ukraine.
“This BRICS summit is truly a gift for Putin. The message will be: how can one speak of Russia’s global isolation when these leaders are converging in Kazan? Russia aims to position BRICS as a ‘cutting-edge, new organisation leading us all towards a more just global order,'” explains Alex Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.
Yet, despite Russia’s bold rhetoric, the leaders attending the Kazan summit represent a diverse array of views and interests—a reality of BRICS that, according to observers, hampers their ability to convey a unified message, particularly one that aligns with Putin’s ambitions.
Global interests
The Russian leader and his invited guests are expected to harness the frustration of Global South nations toward the U.S. and its support for Israel to advocate for a new world order that does not place the U.S. at the centre, analysts from CNN suggest.
During the summit, Putin will also seek to bolster the bloc by promoting the establishment of a new global financial payment system aimed at challenging American dominance in international finance and protecting Russia and its allies from sanctions. The ambitious “BRICS Bridge” is anticipated to be operational within a year.
“For Putin, creating a new payment system is both an urgent practical necessity and a geopolitical manoeuvre. Currently, Russia’s currency markets predominantly operate in yuan, but the country faces a shortage of this currency to meet all its import needs, forcing trade to revert to bartering. In October, Russia struck a deal to import citrus from Pakistan, compensating with chickpeas and lentils. Reports indicate that this liquidity crisis is only worsening,” notes The Economist.
During the summit, Putin will turn his attention to his meeting with Xi Jinping, their fourth encounter since February 2022. This discussion promises to deepen the already strong ties between Russia and China.
“As Beijing’s relations with the West have soured over various issues—none more significant than its tacit support for Russia’s war in Ukraine—China is increasingly focusing on building connections with developing and non-aligned countries. Analysts believe that as more nations join BRICS, both Beijing and Moscow can bolster their claims to global influence, challenging the dominance of Washington and its group of affluent allies,” reports The New York Times.
However, while China enjoys the support of isolated, anti-Western BRICS members like Russia and Iran, it faces a tougher challenge in swaying India, Brazil, and South Africa—the bloc’s key democracies—to adopt a more adversarial stance toward the United States.
“For these countries, BRICS is a platform to navigate the delicate balance between Beijing and Washington, rather than a chance to pick sides,” experts say.
At the same time, as the BBC notes, fostering cooperation between China and India on economic issues presents “an endless challenge.” This dynamic extends to other regional pairs, such as Egypt and Ethiopia, as well as Saudi Arabia and Iran. “The notion that these countries will come together on anything of real significance is frankly unrealistic,” says Jim O’Neill, former chief economist at Goldman Sachs.
