‘Global South’ interested in joining BRICS – as it’s ‘tone deaf’ to anti-Russia rhetoric

Published

9 months ago

October 22, 2024

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For Vladimir Putin, the optics could not be better.

More than two and a half years into his war in Ukraine, he is shaking hands this week with not just one world leader, or two, but more than 20.

China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian…there’s even Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of a NATO member state and EU candidate country.

They have all come to the Russian city of Kazan for the BRICS summit of emerging economies.

As you might expect, the Russian president was positively beaming as he sat down with various heads of state for a string of one-on-one meetings.

The message from the Kremlin is loud and clear – the West’s efforts to isolate Russia have not worked. Instead of losing friends, Moscow has made them.

“It shows something about the weakness of the sanctions regime,” Mark Galeotti, principal director of Mayak Intelligence, told Sky News.

“There was a lot of exaggerated sense as to how the West could put a stranglehold on Russia, and many countries are, frankly, not willing to play those games.

“It highlights the degree to which in this incredibly complex, multi-connected, modern world, it’s very hard to actually isolate any country, especially one as large and as engaged in global commerce as Russia.”

The first BRIC summit was in 2009, involving Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined in 2010 to add the S on the end of the acronym.

For much of the last decade and a half, the group has been dismissed by economists as an alphabet soup of countries – too spread out and fundamentally different from one another to form any meaningful alliance.

But in the last few years, it has grown more significant and seemingly influential.

‘A powerful platform’

The group has expanded its membership to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia has also been invited to join, and according to Russia, there are dozens of other countries that want to become part of the club.

That’s despite Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the West’s attempts to cast Mr Putin as a war criminal.

“A lot of countries in the Global South are really tone deaf to rhetoric about Russia breaking the rules,” Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, told Sky News.

Handshake between Putin and Xi will be key moment at BRICS but temperatures are high

Nicole Johnston

Asia correspondent

@nicole_reporter

For China, the BRICS conference is another opportunity to show the West that when it comes to its multi-polar vision of the world it’s not alone.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin are united in actively challenging the US-led international order.

One of the key moments of this BRICS will be a handshake between these leaders.

Behind it though the international temperature is high.

The US has imposed sanctions on two China-based companies and their alleged Russian business partners, accusing them of supplying complete weapons systems to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Previously China was accused of sending dual-use items like machinery tools and semiconductors to Russia, but not complete weapons.

The US Treasury Department said China and Russia had collaborated to produce Moscow’s ‘Garpiya series’ of long-range unmanned aerial vehicles.

There are two dozen countries with emerging economies also attending the BRICS summit who are not yet members.

Clearly interest from countries in the “global south” is strong.

But for many of them it’s not about choosing the West or China. It’s about having options in an increasingly complicated and fragmented world.

“All the questions ‘what about Iraq?’ are not driven by Russian propaganda points but by genuine concern about the US abusing its role as the most powerful country.

“They realise that the current international order underwritten by the US doesn’t really deliver for them and they don’t know what the alternative is but BRICS is really a powerful platform where these issues can be discussed.”

Top of the agenda this week is an alternative platform for international payments, which Mr Putin hopes will end the dominance of the dollar and make the BRICS economies immune to Western sanctions.

Because despite all the talk of sanctions not having the desired effect, they have caused Russia problems.

It’s been cut off from international markets, and more recently, the country’s had difficulties with cross-border trade, even with friendly countries like China, because it’s linked to the dollar and there’s a threat of secondary sanctions by the US.

An entirely new system, not involving the dollar, would bypass those issues. But it’s unlikely to come to fruition this week.

For one, the idea is still in its infancy. What’s more, not all the BRICS members, like India and Brazil, share Mr Putin’s anti-Western sentiment.

“There is concern among these countries about how close you want to move towards Russia or an agenda that’s seen as enabling this horrible war from Russia in Ukraine,” Mr Gabuev said.

Brazil and India are not alone. Saudi Arabia and Turkey also share strong ties with the West. Their presence in Kazan can be seen more as an attempt to play both sides, rather than overt support of Russia.

But that does not seem to matter to the residents of Kazan. Most people we have spoken to here view the summit as the Kremlin intends.

“This is a wonderful event,” Alexandra told us. “I think that this will be a breakthrough and that the world has become multipolar.”

Alexei is another who is proud of his president.

“He is looking in all directions and it’s bearing fruit,” he said. “If someone thinks we’re isolated, it is probably only their problem.”

Not everyone shares that opinion, though.

Favaris points to Russia’s closer ties with North Korea: “If you are friends with an outcast, then you have fallen lower than ever.”

World

‘Horrific incident’ at sheriff training facility in LA – at least three people dead

Published

5 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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'Horrific incident' at sheriff training facility in LA - at least three people dead

At least three people have been killed after a “horrific incident” at a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department training facility, officials have said.

A spokesperson for the department said there was an explosion at the Biscailuz Center Academy Training in east LA.

The incident was reported at around 7.30am local time (3.30pm UK time).

Aerial footage from local channel KABC-TV suggests the blast happened in a parking lot filled with sheriff patrol cars and box trucks.

Attorney general Pam Bondi wrote on X: “I just spoke to @USAttyEssayli about what appears to be a horrific incident that killed at least three at a law enforcement training facility in Los Angeles.

“Our federal agents are at the scene and we are working to learn more.”

California congressman Jimmy Sanchez said the explosion had “claimed the lives of at least three deputies”.

“My condolences to the families and everyone impacted by this loss,” he said.

The attorney general said in a follow-up post that agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are “on the ground to support”.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, said the LAPD bomb squad has also responded to the scene.

“The thoughts of all Angelenos are with all of those impacted by this blast,” she said.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has been briefed on the incident, his press office said in a post on X.

“The Governor’s Office of Emergency Services is in contact with the Sheriff’s Department and closely monitoring the situation, and has offered full state assistance,” it added.

The cause of the explosion is being investigated.

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World

Unmasked: The 18 Russian spies who mounted series of attacks on UK

Published

5 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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Unmasked: The 18 Russian spies who mounted series of attacks on UK

Dozens of Russian spies have been sanctioned by the government – including those responsible for targeting Yulia Skripal five years before her attempted murder in Salisbury.

The Foreign Office has announced that three units of the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU) have been hit with sanctions, alongside 18 military intelligence officers.

Politics latest: Diane Abbott suspended from Labour

GRU officers attempted to murder Yulia Skipal and her father Sergei using the deadly Novichok nerve agent in Salisbury.

The 18 military intelligence officers have been targeted because of a sustained campaign of malicious cyber activity over many years, including in the UK, the Foreign Office said.

The government also accused the GRU of using cyber and information operations to “sow chaos, division and disorder in Ukraine and across the world”.

One of the groups sanctioned, Unit 26165, conducted online reconnaissance to help target missile strikes against Mariupol, including the bombing of Mariupol Theatre where hundreds of civilians, including children, were murdered.

Other military officers who have been sanctioned previously targeted Yulia Skripal’s mobile phone with malicious malware known as X-Agent.

The Skripals had moved to the UK after Sergei Skripal became a double agent, secretly working for the UK. He was tried for high treason and imprisoned in Russia – and later exchanged in a spy swap.

But five years after Yulia’s phone was targeted, the pair were poisoned with the nerve agent, Novichok, in Salisbury. Russia has always denied being involved in the chemical attack.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “GRU spies are running a campaign to destabilise Europe, undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty and threaten the safety of British citizens,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.

“The Kremlin should be in no doubt: we see what they are trying to do in the shadows and we won’t tolerate it.”

He said the UK was taking “decisive action” with the sanctions against Russian spies.

“Putin’s hybrid threats and aggression will never break our resolve. The UK and our allies’ support for Ukraine and Europe’s security is ironclad.”

Those sanctioned today include:

Aleksandr Vladimirovich Osadchuk

Yevgeniy Mikhaylovich Serbriakov

Anatoliy Sergeyvich Kovalev

Artem Valeryvich Ochichenko

The 161st Specialist Training Centre (TsPS) (Unit 29155) of the GRU

Vladislav Yevgenyevich Borovkov

Nikolay Aleksandrovich Korchagin

Yuriy Federovich Denisov

Vitaly Aleksandrovich Shevchenko

Ivan Sergeyevich Yermakov

Aleksey Viktorovich Lukashev

Sergey Sergeyevich Vasyuk

Andrey Eduardovich Baranov

Aleksey Sergeyevich Morenets

Sergey Aleksandrovich Morgachev

Artem Adreyevich Malyshev

Yuriy Leonidovich Shikolenko

Victor Borisovich Netyksho

Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Mikhaylov

African Initiative

Artyom Sergeevich Kureyev

Anna Sergeevna Zamaraeva

Victor Aleksandrovich Lukovenko

World

Antarctica’s oldest ice arrives in UK for analysis on climate shifts

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5 hours ago

July 18, 2025

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Antarctica's oldest ice arrives in UK for analysis on climate shifts

Antarctica’s oldest ice has arrived in the UK for analysis which scientists hope will reveal more about Earth’s climate shifts.

The ice was retrieved from depths of up to 2,800 metres at Little Dome C in East Antarctica as part of an international effort to “unlock the deepest secrets of Antarctica’s ice”.

The ice cores – cylindrical tubes of ancient ice – will be analysed at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) in Cambridge, with the ultimate goal of reconstructing up to 1.5 million years of Earth’s climate history, significantly extending the current ice core record of 800,000 years.

The research is also expected to offer valuable context for predicting future climate change, Dr Liz Thomas, head of the ice cores team at the British Antarctic Survey, said.

Over the next few years, the samples will be analysed by different labs across Europe to gain understanding of Earth’s climate evolution and greenhouse gas concentrations.

Dr Thomas said: “It’s incredibly exciting to be part of this international effort to unlock the deepest secrets of Antarctica’s ice.

“The project is driven by a central scientific question: why did the planet’s climate cycle shift roughly one million years ago from a 41,000-year to a 100,000-year phasing of glacial-interglacial cycles?

“By extending the ice core record beyond this turning point, researchers hope to improve predictions of how Earth’s climate may respond to future greenhouse gas increases.”

The ice was extracted as part of the Beyond EPICA – Oldest Ice project, which is funded by the European Commission and brings together researchers from 10 European countries and 12 institutions.

“Our data will yield the first continuous reconstructions of key environmental indicators-including atmospheric temperatures, wind patterns, sea ice extent, and marine productivity-spanning the past 1.5 million years,” Dr Thomas said.

“This unprecedented ice core dataset will provide vital insights into the link between atmospheric CO₂ levels and climate during a previously uncharted period in Earth’s history, offering valuable context for predicting future climate change.”