Brics summit in Kazan: Putin wants to show that Russia is not isolated

Vladimir Putin began three days of intense diplomatic activity at the Brics summit in Kazan on Tuesday with a meeting with the Indian Narendra Modi, where he intends to demonstrate the failure of the policy of isolating Russia initiated by the West.

After the Indian Prime Minister, he must meet the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, before the official opening of this summit organized with the declared desire to compete “hegemony” western.

This Brics meeting, which is being held until Thursday on the banks of the Volga, comes as Moscow is gaining ground militarily in Ukraine and has forged close alliances with the United States’ greatest adversaries: China, Iran and North Korea.

The Kremlin prides itself on welcoming “the most important diplomatic event ever organized in Russia”a snub to the West supposed to demonstrate the failure of their policy of isolation against Vladimir Putin since the offensive against Ukraine in February 2022.

In the center of Kazan, security measures have been greatly reinforced, AFP journalists noted. Residents are urged to stay at home, local media reported.

Kazan, a thousand kilometers from the Ukrainian border, has repeatedly suffered drone attacks from Ukraine targeting industrial sites linked to the army.

marathon of bilateral meetings

Vladimir Putin began on Tuesday a marathon of around fifteen bilateral meetings planned between now and Thursday, with an interview with the Brazilian president of the New Development Bank, Dilma Rousseff.

On this occasion, the Russian president repeated his wish for an increase in “payments in national currencies” between the Brics countries, which “reduce geopolitical risks” according to him.

Facing Western economic sanctions and with its main banks excluded from the international payment platform Swift, Russia is pleading for the establishment of an alternative system to counter the hegemony of the dollar.

A sign of the importance of the strategic turn taken towards Asia by Moscow, Vladimir Putin will also speak during the day with his Chinese ally Xi Jinping. The Russian head of state will meet on Wednesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – whose country, a NATO member, has requested to join the BRICS – and with Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian.

Before continuing on Thursday, according to the Kremlin, with a highly anticipated tête-à-tête with the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, a first between the two men since April 2022. The UN has not confirmed the encounter.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, for his part, canceled his trip on Sunday and will speak by videoconference, according to the Brazilian presidency.

Vladimir Putin will also speak at a press conference on Thursday at the end of the summit.

« Alternative »

This Brics summit “aims to show that Russia is not only far from isolated, but that it has partners and allies”underlines Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalatchev.

Targeted by an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court in March 2023 due to the deportation of Ukrainian children, of which kyiv accuses Moscow, Vladimir Putin is limited in his travels abroad.

For this home meeting, the Kremlin judges « crucial » to demonstrate that“there is an alternative to Western pressures (…) and that the multipolar world is a reality”selon M. Kalatchev.

Moscow presents its assault on Ukraine not as a war of conquest, despite its new claimed annexations of Ukrainian regions after that of Crimea in 2014, but as a conflict provoked by American hegemonism.

For Westerners and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Russia is on the contrary in a logic of domination of its neighbors, and seeks to impose a law of the strongest on an international scale.

With four members (Brazil, Russia, India, China) when it was created in 2009, the Brics bloc joined South Africa in 2010, thus taking its name from the initials of these states in English. It was joined this year by four countries (Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates).

The only downside is the absence in Kazan of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, which fuels speculation about possible disagreements between the two world energy heavyweights.