Russia is hosting this year’s summit of the BRICS grouping beginning today in the city of Kazan. This year’s meeting is also the first summit to include new members Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, alongside its founding members Brazil, Russia, India and China, as well as South Africa, which joined in 2010. (AP)
Our Take
The narrative framing around the BRICS bloc in recent years has been increasingly focused on its role amid the new landscape of geopolitical competition. This year’s summit in particular appears to demonstrate Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ability to not only avoid the West’s attempts to turn Russia into a pariah following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but also his attempt to use BRICS to form an alternative to the U.S-led order.
Both have some logic. Russia is hosting 36 countries for this summit, including 20 heads of state. Putin himself will hold 20 bilateral meetings this week. He and Moscow are clearly not isolated, at least not as much as the West would like. And it is true that Putin would prefer to see an alternative to the Western-led order emerge, one in which Russia holds more influence.