Vladimir Putin has proclaimed the start of a new “world order” as his allies rushed to sign up to a Kremlin-led economic club at a summit in Russia.
The Russian president will more than double the size of the BRICS bloc by the time he leaves Kazan, in central Russia, on Thursday evening, creating an economic bloc to challenge the West.
“The process of forming a multipolar world order is underway, a dynamic and irreversible process,” Putin said on Wednesday on the second day of the three-day summit, which will expand the BRICS grouping to up to 22 members.
On Tuesday, Putin held bilateral meetings with visiting foreign leaders and hosted an informal dinner followed by a concert in Kazan’s ornate 19th-century town hall.Police had flanked roads through the city centre and blocked off streets as Putin dined with Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, as well as the leaders of Iran, India, South Africa, Egypt, the UAE, Ethiopia and Egypt.Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian president, cancelled his trip to Russia after injuring his head in a fall.
The Kremlin has used its dominant position around global grain supplies, space, nuclear power, and oil and gas exports to build up support for its war in Ukraine over the past couple of years.
Many of the 36 countries that have travelled to Kazan to take part in the BRICS summit are also allies of the West, including Azerbaijan which supplies gas to the EU and is a major BP production hub.
Up to 12 countries are expected to apply to join BRICS, which currently has 10 members.Hanna Notte, a senior associate at the Center of Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said the Kremlin was using the leaders who had travelled to Russia to score diplomatic points.
“This will reinforce the impression that Russia’s war against Ukraine has become the ‘new normal’ and that Putin is not considered a pariah outside Western capitals,” she said.
And for the first time, the Kremlin has overtly linked BRICS to the war in Ukraine.Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s top aide, told Russian media that “the Ukraine issue had been touched on” during Tuesday’s informal dinner hosted by the Russian leader.
A final BRICS communique on Thursday is expected to establish a joint position for members on the war in Ukraine.Antonio Guterres, UN general secretary, flew into Kazan on Wednesday in a widely criticised move.
His office has defended his attendance, saying that BRICS now represents half the world’s population and that attending large international meetings was “standard practice”.
The Kremlin has framed the summit as “one of the international political events of the year” and ordered officials to beautify Kazan, an ancient city with a renowned fortress set above the confluence of the Volga and Kazanka rivers.
Russian military recruitment adverts for its war in Ukraine have been replaced by bright-coloured banners for the event.At Kazan’s enlarged international airport, border guards speak English to BRICS delegates, while plain-clothed FSB officers smile and wish attendees “a good stay”.
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