OPINION: A Potemkin Summit

The brainchild of the Western financial services industry more than 20 years ago has grown like a cancer to be an opportunity for Russia’s current rehabilitation. This is at a time when Russia is increasing its atrocities in Ukraine, even utilizing the resources of a global pariah that even Russia had sanctioned in the past.

Ironic? Certainly. An aberration? Hardly! The West has, unwittingly mostly, done much to enhance its greatest perils over the last century. And so, the West will suffer the consequences.

The original BRIC (now BRICS+) was the brainchild of an American investment banker from Goldman Sachs to spur investments in emerging economies. The time was 2001 and Vladimir Putin was just getting started as Russia’s president. By the time the idea began taking root in 2006 at the UN, Putin was serving his second term as the Russian president. He was beginning to flex his muscles but mostly with threats and also clandestinely where he excelled. Brazil, Russia, India, and China were the emerging economies and democracies, mostly in name only, that formed the original union.

Putin was an unknown, but he should not have been. After all, he had been a KGB operative with the rank of colonel for a long time before Yeltsin brought him in as his successor. During the formative years after 2006, Putin really flexed, invading Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. For some reason, this did not deter the members or new applicants.

Other Topics of Interest

Russia Gave Su-35s to Its Allies, Now May License Iran to Build Them

There is growing evidence that one method of payment Russia has used to Iran and North Korea in return for them supplying Moscow with weapons of war was Su-35 fighter aircraft.

The recent BRICS Summit in Kazan, a city inside the Tatarstan Republic of Russia, was a Potemkin display expertly directed by Russia and Putin. True, ultimately, Russia did not achieve all it wanted since there were few tangible results and its aggression in Ukraine was not manifestly approved or condoned by the participants.

The Western press only tangentially attempted to embarrass Russia and only because of its North Korean connection and the presence of some 3,000 North Korean soldiers on Russian territory, preparing to aid Russia in the war in Ukraine.

Frankly, such illicit cooperation between Russia and North Korea brazenly contravenes the UN’s resolutions and sanctions, but UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was at the Summit. What was he thinking? I submit that there will be no consequences for Guterres at the UN. That is certainly part of the problem.

New members joined BRICS including Egypt, a military dictatorship but nonetheless a major recipient of United States aid on an annual basis. Turkey, a NATO member, has applied for BRICS membership as it currently slaughters its Kurdish minority, a US ally during the war in Syria. Some 30 nations participated in the round table in Kazan. Apparently, about 40 nations wish to join BRICS.

Guterres was greeted formally by Russian dignitaries and a welcoming committee of attractive Tatar women dressed in their traditional attire. It appeared that the Tatar population within the Russian Federation was flourishing, once again proving that the RF is a home of diverse ethnic groups.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Putin is known as a strongman, a criminal, a thug, in particular when he deals with the captive nations within the Russian Federation. Here he played the role of a global leader, a public relations maven.

In 2001, a Goldman Sachs banker envisioned Russia as an emerging market suitable for good-faith economic alliances and opportunities for investors. Goldman Sachs was delusional.

Today, perhaps the idea would not have included Russia. But Brazil whose second largest trade partner is the United States, Turkey who is a NATO member and Egypt who is a consistent annual recipient of American aid, all essentially enabled and did so wittingly to Russia’s and Putin’s criminality. They attended his summit in Russia because Putin is under a criminal arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (ICC) and cannot travel worldwide, which is aiding and abetting criminal activity.

Once again Guterres should explain why he visited Putin in Russia when the ICC has an arrest warrant against Putin.

Unfortunately, I must admit that Vladimir Putin played his hand extremely well. It was a three-day rehabilitation of Putin by many of the West's allies. Or, is it that the West and the United States played theirs very poorly.

In any event, it was a display of gross incongruity and even betrayal that has marred international relations for at least 75 years or at least since the founding of the UN.

There is a Ukrainian concern here because all of the summit participants betrayed Ukraine.

The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.