Despite the efforts made by the West to isolate it, Russia does not lack allies. This is the message that President Vladimir Putin wants to send to “the collective West” as it hosts, from October 22 to 24, in Kazan, the multi-ethnic city on the banks of the Volga, an important summit of the BRICS, nine countries determined to strengthen the assertion of the Global South.
Mr. Putin, who will not attend the next G20 summit on November 18 and 19 in Brazil, “so as not to disturb” its work, there is its alternative G20, the BRICS. To the five founding states – Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa – were added Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates. The group has enjoyed unprecedented appeal since its expansion at the Johannesburg summit in August 2023, a dynamic that is strengthening. Thirty countries have since applied, including Thailand and Malaysia, a future guarantee of an opening to Southeast Asia. Not to mention the membership requests from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Cuba and many others. “The doors are open, we exclude no one”declared Mr. Putin during an economic forum in Moscow, Friday October 18.
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Twenty-four foreign leaders, including Presidents of China, Xi Jinping, Iran, Massoud Pezeshkian, Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, as well as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, are expected to attend in Kazan, the centuries-old capital of Tatarstan. Presented as a haven of tolerance, the multi-faith city where Orthodox churches and mosques coexist has, at the top, given leave to its civil servants, limiting alcohol sales and blocking residents’ access to the city center.
The opportunity to restore its image
Slight downside, Saudi Arabia, which has never confirmed its membership in BRICS despite the invitation received in 2023, will be represented by the head of its diplomacy and not by the crown prince, Mohammed Ben Salman. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has withdrawn due to health reasons.
Described as “the most important diplomatic event ever organized in Russia”the summit aims, according to Yuri Ushakov, the Russian president’s diplomatic advisor, to “build brick by brick” a bridge to “a fairer world order”. Moscow, said Dmitri Peskov, the Kremlin spokesperson, is seeking to establish “relations which are based on international law and not on rules established by particular countries, notably the United States”. Words that do not lack salt coming from Russia, which has continued in recent years to militarily attack and annex the territories of its neighbors, Georgia in 2008, Ukraine in 2014 and in 2022 .
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