Brics: Putin eyes to rival West as he hosts Modi, Xi at biggest event in Russia since Ukraine invasion

Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to host two dozen world leaders at Brics Summit in Kazan in a show of strength against the West.

At a time when the West is seeking to isolate Russia over the invasion of Ukraine, aggression against Europe, and confrontation with the United States, Putin is seeking to use the Brics Summit to show that such attempts are not working. The Brics Summit would be the biggest international gathering in Russia in 2022 when Russia waged war on Ukraine.

Brics is a group of emerging economies which has been seen by Western observers as a rival to the G-7 and other Western groups. Russia and China have long pitched Brics as central to their development of the new world order.

While Brics initially comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa —leading to the name Brics— the group has expanded over the years to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Putin will hold bilateral meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of the summit. A meeting between Modi and Xi may also take place in the wake of the announcement of a border agreement on Monday.

Russia has hailed the Brics Summit 2024 as a diplomatic achievement aimed at challenging the Western “hegemony”.

Brics and Russia’s vision of new world order

For years, Russia, along with China, has been working to undermine the West and develop a new world order. Brics has been a central element to the vision.

At the Brics Summit 2024, Putin is set to press for a BRICS-led payment system to rival SWIFT, an international financial network that Russian banks were cut off from in 2022 over the invasion of Ukraine, according to AFP.

With the Brics Summit in Kazan, Putin “aims to show that not only is Russia not isolated, it has partners and allies”, Moscow-based political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP.

Kalachev further said that Russia wants to show an “alternative to Western pressure and that the multipolar world is a reality”.

Ahead of the summit, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov dubbed Brics as a “prototype of multipolarity”.

“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. What BRICS is doing is gradually —brick by brick— building a bridge to a more democratic and just world order,” said Ushakov, as per AFP.

Even though the United States has dismissed the idea of Brics as a rival, it has expressed concerns about Russia using the platform to flex muscles amid the ongoing war on Ukraine. The West believes that Russia is using Brics to expand its influence and promote its own narratives about the war on Ukraine.

Along with China, Iran, and North Korea, Russia is part of the authoritarian bloc that has been undermining the democratic West and aiding each-other in its wars . Iran, North Korea, and China are aiding Russia in the war on Ukraine with supplies of armed drones, ammunition, and dual-use goods as well consumer goods. Similarly, Iran’s proxy are also receiving Russian arms in West Asia in the war on Israel. Russia sees Brics and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an extension of the bloc’s efforts to undermine the West and build a new world order.