The president Vladimir Putin will bring together some 20 foreign leaders for a summit of allies and partners on October 22-24 to demonstrate Russian power and the failure of the West’s policy of isolation in relation to the war in Ukraine.
This Sunday 20th, the president Lula (PT) canceled his trip to Russia after suffering an domestic accidentbut will participate via videoconference, informed the Presidency. The Chinese president, Xi Jinpingand the Iranian president, Masud Pezeshkianmust attend. Moscow is also counting on the presence of Narendra Modifrom India, and Recep Tayyip Erdoganfrom Türkiye.
The BRICS summit will be held in Kazan, on the banks of the Volga River, with several foreign leaders and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, the Kremlin said, hailing it as “the most important diplomatic event organized in Russia”.
The meeting comes as Russia gains ground in Ukraine and forges alliances with the US’s main adversaries, such as China, Iran and North Korea. The Kremlin has also managed to secure alliances with countries that have ties to the West.
With Pezeshkian’s presence, amid the escalation with Israel, the Summit participants will also discuss the wars in Gaza and southern Lebanon. However, Russia seems to want to maintain a certain distance from these conflicts, limiting itself, for now, to asking for moderation from the parties involved.
Alternative
This large meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) “aims to show that Russia is not only far from being isolated, but that it has partners and allies”, political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP in Moscow.
Putin, the target of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March 2023 for the deportation of Ukrainian children, for which Kiev accuses Moscow, had to withdraw from the previous BRICS summit in South Africa.
For the Kazan meeting, the Kremlin considers it “crucial” to demonstrate that “there is an alternative to Western pressures (…) and that the multipolar world is a reality”, according to Kalachev.
Moscow insists on presenting its attack on Ukraine not as a war of conquest, despite its alleged annexations of Ukrainian regions, but as a conflict provoked by US hegemony.
“Russia (…) seeks relations based on international law and not on the rules established by certain countries, especially the United States,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, claiming the support of the ‘overwhelming majority of countries’.
By bringing together the “global South and East” to counterbalance the West, according to Russia, BRICS must “build, brick by brick, a bridge to a more just world order,” said Kremlin diplomatic adviser Iuri Uchakov .
The West, on the other hand, considers that Russia is seeking to dominate its neighbors and impose a law of the jungle on the international stage.
When presenting his “plan for victory”, the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenskywarned that other countries could try to imitate Russia in case of victory.
“If Putin achieves his far-fetched goals – geopolitical, military, ideological and economic – other potential aggressors will feel that wars of aggression can benefit them,” he warned.
Brics expansion
With four members at its creation in 2009 (Brazil, China, India and Russia), South Africa joined the following year.
In the summer of 2023, the bloc accepted entry from Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Argentina, which failed to formalize its membership after Javier Milei became president.
Turkey, a NATO member that has a complex relationship with Moscow and the West, announced in September its intention to join the bloc.
According to Uchakov, all Brics member countries will be represented in Kazan by their leaders, with the exception of Saudi Arabia, which will send its foreign minister.
The absence of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, who traveled to Brussels this week, has sparked speculation about possible disagreements between the two global energy heavyweights.
“Of course the Kremlin would have loved to see the crown prince,” Kalachev said, adding that ‘everything is going very well for the Kremlin.’
(With information from AFP).
