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Vladimir Putin says it’s time for the BRICS group to generate greater economic growth, given its size and faster growth than that of the Western world.
The Kremlin leader told a business forum in Moscow that the association could become “the drivers of global economic growth in the foreseeable future” and “generate the main increase in global GDP.” The Russian President hopes to foresee the building of a BRICS currency as a powerful counterweight to the West’s influence and a formidable SWIFT alternative.
Efforts to Isolate Have Failed
The Russian leader who will host the BRICS Summit in Kazan on October 22-24 aims to present evidence that efforts by Western countries to isolate Moscow due to its actions in Ukraine haven’t succeeded. Putin stated that the countries in the BRICS Group, initially including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are growing rapidly, with Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE all slated to join the economic bloc in January 2025. Other interested parties that have formally applied to join the group include Azerbaijan, Turkey, Malaysia and many others.
Russian government officials have expressed their confidence in Vladimir Putin’s plans. Putin is currently seen as a pariah following his decision to invade neighbouring Ukraine. According to Russia’s foreign policy aide, at least 20 heads of state will attend the Kazan summit from a list of 32 countries that have confirmed attendance, making the summit “the largest foreign policy event” held in the country in recent times.
BRICS Currency as SWIFT Alternative
Political and economic analysts believe that Putin wants to use the upcoming events to enable BRICS to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with its allies and counter-economic tensions driven by the West. By aiming to create a BRICS currency as a SWIFT alternative, the group seeks to elevate its ability to negotiate deals to shore up its economies and have a chance to amplify its voices and narratives.
Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center Director Alexander Gabuyev averred that “the beauty of BRICS is that it doesn’t put too many obligations” on members since there weren’t too many strings attached to being a part of the economic bloc. Further, the summit will be important to Vladimir Putin personally as he believes it will be a testament to the failure of the West to try and isolate him.
Regarding the push to create a unified BRICS currency as a SWIFT alternative, Putin stated that there was already an ongoing effort where central banks within the bloc were already scouting for an alternative to the Western owned financial messaging system. Putin emphasized the group’s effort to take their time to ensure they established an “independent, reliable financial network” to enable them to forego limitations they always encounter when using the existing systems, which he called politically restrictive and contradictory for fairness.
Efforts are Bearing Fruit
Putin underscored the importance of caution as they made progress and stressed the need to undertake a gradual process since the project was still a developing one and wasn’t yet mature. He said the group “should be very careful” and “needed to act gradually without haste.” The Russian leader said the BRICS nations were currently taking the time to enhance financial cooperation using other means, such as the ongoing efforts to employ their national currencies to ensure secure economic transactions.
Considering that at least 30 countries had expressed their interest in joining the BRICS group, Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that countries in our association are essentially the drivers of global economic growth,” adding that “BRICS will generate the main increase in global GDP.” The Kremlin leader believes that the group’s efforts will soon bear fruit by placing mechanisms in place for international trade to happen independent of the US dollar. According to him, members of the BRICS Group are gradually increasingly cutting their ties from “external influence and interference”, which will eventually lead to “economic sovereignty.”
Conclusion
The use of a blockchain-based BRICS currency is at the center of the group’s efforts to overhaul the global financial system and prevent the West from using the world’s dominance of the US dollar from using it as a weapon against other nations. The group members believe that by creating a SWIFT alternative that’s immune to Western sanctions, they will eventually become a force to reckon with as far as the global economic direction of the future is concerned.
