At the Brics meeting, Putin spoke about building a “multipolar world order”. In addition to Russia, China also wants the organization’s influence to grow.
Mikko Leppänen,
Roni Kuronen
President of Russia Vladimir Putin defended his country’s war of aggression against Ukraine in his speech at the summit of the Brics group of developing economies.
The meeting is in progress in South Africa. Putin spoke to the leaders of the Brics countries via video link.
He repeated the Kremlin’s narrative that Russia was forced to invade Ukraine in response to hostile actions by Kiev and Washington.
Russia launched a major invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Before that, it had illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in 2014.
– Our actions in Ukraine are dictated by one thing, to end the war against the people living in Donbas, which the West and its satellites started, Putin said, according to the news agency Reuters.
He was referring to eastern Ukraine, where Russian-backed forces have been fighting the Ukrainian armed forces since 2014.
Putin claimed that the desire of some countries to maintain their supremacy in the world led to a serious crisis in Ukraine.
Russia wants a “multipolar world order”
The Brics group includes Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The members of the group have not condemned Russia’s war of aggression.
Russia has repeatedly said that it is ready to negotiate for peace and an end to the 18-month-long war. However, as a condition for the start of negotiations, Russia has set that the West must accept “new realities” and that the territories illegally annexed by Russia now belong to Russia.
Russia currently occupies about a fifth of Ukraine.
President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa said in response to Putin’s speech that Brics members support efforts to end the conflict.
Strengthening the Brics group is part of Russia’s goal to weaken the dominance of the United States in world politics. In his speech, Putin called this activity the construction of a “multipolar world order”.
Vladimir Putin was unable to attend the Brics meeting in person because the International War Crimes Court ICC issued an arrest warrant for him in March. ICC accuses Putin of war crimes in Ukraine.
Russia said the accusations are outrageous and have no legal basis because Russia is not a member of the ICC.
Instead, South Africa is a member of the ICC, so it would have had to arrest Putin if he had entered the country.
China wants the Brics group to expand
In addition to Putin, also the president of China Xi Jinping spoke on Wednesday at the South African Summit.
In his speech, Xi called for the rapid expansion of the Brics group, in order to increase the organization’s influence.
– We should allow more countries to join the Brics family in order to become wiser and make the world’s political power relations more fair and reasonable, Xi said.
Among the Brics countries, at least India has viewed the organization’s rapid expansion with reservations. On Wednesday, South Africa’s foreign minister Naledi Pandor however, noted that the Brics countries have agreed on the details of the group’s expansion.
The countries of the Brics group currently make up 40 percent of the world’s population and about a quarter of the entire world economy. However, China has shown concern that the United States and several European countries have begun to reduce their dependence on China.
Source: Reuters