Putin Relishes Role on Stage, but Ukraine War Looms over BRICS Summit

The Washington Post / Francesca Ebel

13:07 JST, October 24, 2024

KAZAN, Russia – With the hosting of the annual BRICS summit fortuitously falling on Russia’s shoulders this year, President Vladimir Putin has been handed an opportunity to flaunt his nation’s standing on the world stage, despite Western efforts to ostracize him since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The three-day summit is the largest geopolitical event in Russia since the war and saw the first formal talks between the estranged leaders of China and India in five years, as well as discussions on alternative global financial systems – but there was little focus on the war in Ukraine, one of the world’s biggest ongoing crises.

Leaders and delegations from 36 nations – including Brazil, South Africa and Iran – descended on Kazan, one of Russia’s largest and most affluent cities, to discuss their grievances about widely perceived Western hypocrisy over the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and the dysfunction of the global institutions created since World War II.

Yet Russia’s war on Ukraine still loomed over the event, whether in the impact of Western sanctions on the fabric of life in Kazan, the efforts by some BRICS founding members to work toward a peaceful solution, or the near-absence of any mention of the same in Wednesday’s final declaration.

Since Tuesday, when the summit started, Kazan’s entire city center has experienced rolling connectivity blackouts after authorities jammed signals as part of enhanced security in the wake of drone threats that briefly shut down the city’s airport. Billboards flanking the city’s roads bear the faces of Russian soldiers killed on the front lines in Ukraine, while many shop fronts feature advertisements offering sizable compensation to those who join “the army of victory.”

Unable to use their credit cards in Russia because of a block on international transactions, delegates carried around envelopes of cash, while the foreign press corps flocked to order post-sanctions “Dobry Cola” at the chain that replaced McDonalds, now called “Tasty and That’s It.” Both Coca-Cola and McDonalds exited the country after the Ukraine invasion.

The 43-page Kazan Declaration called for a cease-fire in Gaza and signaled positive developments involving a new non-Western payment system but mentioned Ukraine only once.

Among the BRICS members, calls to end the war have been cautious and lukewarm, with only Brazil directly criticizing Moscow’s invasion as “unacceptable.”

“We support dialogue and diplomacy, not war,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday in remarks carried by the Indian Foreign Ministry. Modi’s visit marked his second trip to Russia in three months.

A six-point peace plan spearheaded by Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and China’s Xi Jinping has called for de-escalation, mutual humanitarian assistance, a peace conference that both Russia and Ukraine agree to attend, and a ban on weapons of mass destruction. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed the initiative as serving Russia’s interests.

When approached by The Washington Post, Indian delegates declined to comment on whether they are actively involved in efforts to push forward the peace plan.

Members of the Brazilian delegation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, told The Post that their government was concerned about escalation in Ukraine and the conflict becoming a global war. They said both sides were probably waiting to see who wins the upcoming U.S. presidential election before making any moves toward a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

“Militarily you cannot change the balance right now, and there is a lot of fatigue around the conflict, but I think after the elections there will be a shift,” one of the officials said, adding that Ukrainians’ attachment to “maximalistic perceptions” of peace had been obstructive.

“The call for Russia to withdraw completely, to pay reparations, to send Russian officials to the criminal court – it’s hard to believe that the Russians will accept any of this.”

Another official said China and Brazil did not expect full agreement from both sides, adding that if their efforts “can contribute to getting a process started, that’s good. It’s important that we already see signs of willingness, but it’s too early to tell – it’s going to take time.”

The management of the war in Ukraine and Gaza showed that “the current framework and global institutions are not working as they should,” the official said, and the combination of a powerful China and a large South American democracy with good communication channels with Russia could bring different assets in efforts to reach a possible settlement. “We have the responsibility to try something new,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that the declaration demonstrated BRICS has no unified position on Ukraine.

“Moscow’s attempts to impose an idea of an alleged alternative position of the so-called Global South regarding Russian aggression against Ukraine have failed again,” the ministry said in a statement.

U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, meanwhile, raised eyebrows with his attendance at the summit, as European Union leaders on Wednesday implored BRICS members to demand Putin to end the war.

E.U. foreign policy spokesman Peter Stano condemned “Russia’s misuse” of its chairmanship of the group, noting that there is an arrest warrant for the Russian leader from the International Court of Justice for alleged war crimes. Putin was unable to attend last year’s BRICS summit in South Africa, after Johannesburg warned it would have to comply with the ICJ warrant.

“We trust that all participants of the summit in Kazan will use this event to call on Putin once again to immediately end the war against the Ukrainian people,” Stano said.

Putin and BRICS members were keen to stress the group’s growing clout. During his opening remarks at a restricted-format meeting Wednesday, Putin defined deeper financial cooperation among BRICS members and the group’s expansion as the summit’s priorities, adding that at least 30 other countries had expressed an interest in joining the group.

“We are all witnessing the dynamic growth of BRICS and the strengthening of its authority and influence in global affairs,” Putin told leaders of the group, adding that BRICS “is especially relevant in the current conditions when truly radical changes are underway across the globe, including the shaping of a multipolar world.”

Kazan, roughly 500 miles east of Moscow, was picked to showcase the apparent resilience of the Russian economy and failure of Western sanctions. Known as Russia’s third capital, Kazan is one of the wealthiest cities in the country, with well-oiled infrastructure and expanding investment projects.

The host city also speaks to Russia’s potential outreach to the Islamic world. It is the capital of Tatarstan, a semiautonomous region at the crossroads between Europe and Asia with an ethnically Tatar and predominantly Muslim majority. The city’s ancient center is home to several sacred sites, including a mosque and a church.