B.R.I.C.S. Discussion

Just saw this article by Market Insider appear on my phone. Jeffrey Christian, a commodities expert who thinks dollar dominance isn't going away anytime soon and thinks De-dollarization is a fad that will backfire on countries.


What do you guys think and what are any weaknesses in his analysis?

https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/de-dollarization-dollar-war-usd-yuan-china-russia-brics-currency-2024-7

He is right when he points out there are problems using other currencies and payment systems, but for Russia and China and to a much lessor extent India, the Americans are making using the US dollar difficult or impossible so they really have no choice but to continue to pursue alternatives.

The US is using its control of the US dollar as a weapon, which makes alternatives to US dollars essential for countries like Russia and China... and as the west has found with sanctions, Russia and China are not tiny little countries that will fold and collapse with sanctions and economic pressure... they both produce things the world needs, and the west also needs.

You can't cut Russia out of the world economy because Russia produces too much of the energy and raw materials the world needs to function... including the west.

If Russia stopped exporting gas there is no replacement... many countries would struggle and for the rest the price of the energy available would skyrocket and become unaffordable to most.

Same with Uranium and titanium and nickel... Russia also exports lots of other things which are going to expand and become essential too...

The simple fact is that BRICS is growing and for western countries who are already forced to buy Russian oil and Russian gas in rubles these money issues are going to become normal until a proper agreed upon currency is created to replace the US dollar and the Euro for international trade.

He mentioned the problems of the Russians getting too many Rupees from India for energy, well that is only a problem because India does not produce anything that Russia wants in large enough volumes for the trade to balance. Some country that buys a lot of things from India and sells a lot of things to Russia might take Rupees as payment so solve the problem but equally Russia could invest in production in India using Indian workers to make things for the Russian market. Everything in India could be paid for in Rupees from the sales to India of oil and gas and other products and the products made in India can be shipped to Russia for use by Russian consumers or for the Russian market... it is paid for by rupees. Maybe building civilian shipping, or building drones, or making ammunition for the Russian military and sales to third party countries that the Russian companies in India could sell in rubles and return the profits to Russia in rubles. India would benefit because wages and taxes and local subcontractors would be paid in trade surplus rupees earned from energy sales to India, but products and third party profits could be paid in rubles and returned to Russia.

Western experts say dedollarisation is myth because the consequences are unthinkable for the US and the western economic model, but BRICS is already about trade outside the western economic model, where BRICS countries will use BRICS currencies and set market prices for their own commodities... starting with food security, and likely adding metals and other markets over time to replace western centric markets designed to control the world and keep the money in the west in the hands of a few, and who cares who starves or suffers..

The comment about restricting trade and damaging your economy by dropping the US dollar and using alternative currencies are amusing because it mentions Russia and yet ignores its booming economy and expanding exports and trade with the rest of the world.

Trade has certainly suffered with western countries but that is because of the sanctions and nothing to do with whether the US dollar is being used in trade or not.

They have to defend the US dollar because their house of cards is built on it as their foundation. When countries stop using it the foundations turn to sand and the whole house collapses and they find themselves on the street fending for themselves... I understand why they are scared... they should be telling Americans to vote for Trump... his wild ideas of dropping sanctions and letting Russia and China use US dollars again would be their only solution that could work.

Russia and China have been talking about dropping the dollar for decades but it wont be easy and will have initial problems... they only did it because the west banned them from SWIFT and seized their American dollar assets... THEY STOLE THEM AND ARE STEALING THE INTEREST THAT THEY SHOULD BE GETTING.

That is why BRICS are dedollarising and why they will push forward and get it done because the US can't be trusted and they don't want their money stolen again... part of TRUMP dropping the sanctions would have to include unfreezing Russian assets and if he doesn't then he should expect dedollarisation to continue.

GarryB wrote:He is right when he points out there are problems using other currencies and payment systems, but for Russia and China and to a much lessor extent India, the Americans are making using the US dollar difficult or impossible so they really have no choice but to continue to pursue alternatives.

The US is using its control of the US dollar as a weapon, which makes alternatives to US dollars essential for countries like Russia and China... and as the west has found with sanctions, Russia and China are not tiny little countries that will fold and collapse with sanctions and economic pressure... they both produce things the world needs, and the west also needs.

You can't cut Russia out of the world economy because Russia produces too much of the energy and raw materials the world needs to function... including the west.

If Russia stopped exporting gas there is no replacement... many countries would struggle and for the rest the price of the energy available would skyrocket and become unaffordable to most.

Same with Uranium and titanium and nickel... Russia also exports lots of other things which are going to expand and become essential too...

The simple fact is that BRICS is growing and for western countries who are already forced to buy Russian oil and Russian gas in rubles these money issues are going to become normal until a proper agreed upon currency is created to replace the US dollar and the Euro for international trade.

He mentioned the problems of the Russians getting too many Rupees from India for energy, well that is only a problem because India does not produce anything that Russia wants in large enough volumes for the trade to balance. Some country that buys a lot of things from India and sells a lot of things to Russia might take Rupees as payment so solve the problem but equally Russia could invest in production in India using Indian workers to make things for the Russian market. Everything in India could be paid for in Rupees from the sales to India of oil and gas and other products and the products made in India can be shipped to Russia for use by Russian consumers or for the Russian market... it is paid for by rupees. Maybe building civilian shipping, or building drones, or making ammunition for the Russian military and sales to third party countries that the Russian companies in India could sell in rubles and return the profits to Russia in rubles. India would benefit because wages and taxes and local subcontractors would be paid in trade surplus rupees earned from energy sales to India, but products and third party profits could be paid in rubles and returned to Russia.

Western experts say dedollarisation is myth because the consequences are unthinkable for the US and the western economic model, but BRICS is already about trade outside the western economic model, where BRICS countries will use BRICS currencies and set market prices for their own commodities... starting with food security, and likely adding metals and other markets over time to replace western centric markets designed to control the world and keep the money in the west in the hands of a few, and who cares who starves or suffers..

The comment about restricting trade and damaging your economy by dropping the US dollar and using alternative currencies are amusing because it mentions Russia and yet ignores its booming economy and expanding exports and trade with the rest of the world.

Trade has certainly suffered with western countries but that is because of the sanctions and nothing to do with whether the US dollar is being used in trade or not.

They have to defend the US dollar because their house of cards is built on it as their foundation. When countries stop using it the foundations turn to sand and the whole house collapses and they find themselves on the street fending for themselves... I understand why they are scared... they should be telling Americans to vote for Trump... his wild ideas of dropping sanctions and letting Russia and China use US dollars again would be their only solution that could work.

Russia and China have been talking about dropping the dollar for decades but it wont be easy and will have initial problems... they only did it because the west banned them from SWIFT and seized their American dollar assets... THEY STOLE THEM AND ARE STEALING THE INTEREST THAT THEY SHOULD BE GETTING.

That is why BRICS are dedollarising and why they will push forward and get it done because the US can't be trusted and they don't want their money stolen again... part of TRUMP dropping the sanctions would have to include unfreezing Russian assets and if he doesn't then he should expect dedollarisation to continue.

This is a good article discussing the fall of the dollar could lead to fall of US empire; I think the US would go to war with Russia and China out of anger.

https://watcher.guru/news/brics-expert-says-failing-dollar-will-lead-to-fall-of-us-empire

UN Secretary General Decides to Attend BRICS Summit in Kazan, by Alexey Degtyarev for VZGLYAD. 10.04.2024.

UN Secretary General's Participation in BRICS Summit in Kazan Announced.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will take part in the BRICS summit, which will be held in Kazan, said Vladimir Kuznetsov, head of the world organization's information center in Russia.

Kuznetsov recalled that the BRICS summit will be held in a Russian city in three weeks, TASS reports .

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, will participate in it as an invited guest, Kuznetsov noted.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed his participation in the BRICS summit in Kazan.

https://vz.ru/news/2024/10/4/1290749.html

This is a good article discussing the fall of the dollar could lead to fall of US empire; I think the US would go to war with Russia and China out of anger.

They have no one to blame but themselves... they were comfortable and in charge and they killed their own golden goose because they wanted more and they didn't want anyone else to have what they had.

Russia and China wanted comfortable safe lives like most western countries enjoy and the US wanted them to remain poor and keep supplying resources at bargain basement prices.

All they had to do was essentially what the BRICS countries are doing now and decolonialising the worlds trade so all countries can grow and develop and get that comfortable lifestyle the west keeps going on about... yet these days fewer and fewer people in the west are enjoying that comfort.

When I was a kid most people had holiday houses in the middle of nowhere they could go for a holiday and let friends and family use it occasionally. These days the kids will be lucky if they own their own house let alone buy some little house in the middle of nowhere, near a lake or a ski field.

The game was rigged and the west... the US... wanted to keep it that way, but they are playing a losing game... the emperor has no clothes... I remember in the 1990s the US boasted about being able to fight two or even three wars at one time. Of course realistically speaking that was a lie because they were feeding and involved in half a dozen wars at one time, but the suggestion of power has been bleed white now. The US is can't continue to support Ukraine and Taiwan and Israel.... a recent video I saw showed damaged weapons and ammo being sent to Taiwan because that was all they had.

It is one thing to multitask, but losing multiple wars at one time is no great achievement... especially when, in the process, you also destroy your control of world trade and sanction yourself so you can't access resources you actually need... like Uranium fuel, and Titanium, and rare earth minerals.

The US might be angry with China and Russia, but I rather suspect when their dollar collapses they will be rather more interested in other things... like all those soldiers coming home from bases all around the world and whether it was the Democrats or Republicans that were to blame for it all...

It is not in Russian or Chinese interests to make the US suffer more than it will, but the current behaviour... I can't see them making a lot of effort to help them either.

America is not very nice.

They slaughtered retreating Iraqi forces leaving Kuwaite, when the left Kabul the Taliban essentially just let them go... ISIS tried to hurt them as they left with that bomb that killed 13 soldiers that everyone gets upset about, but really if you want to learn about retreating from Afghanistan you need to talk to the British, or the French about withdrawing from Russia.

If the roles were reversed in Afghanistan the US would have killed as many as they could manage... The Taliban were just happy to see the Americans leave.

The US Empire is based on secrets and money... secrets to force western politicians to do what the US wants them to do, and money to bribe those that have no huge skeletons in their closets. Most of the spying architecture in the US is focused on US allies to get the dirt to blackmail unquestioned support for the US...

When the money is no good there will still be chances to blackmail, but their power will be massively diminished.

Presidential adviser reports that 32 countries confirm participation in the BRICS summit, 10.10.2024.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Some 32 countries have confirmed their participation in the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan, presidential adviser Yuri Ushakov announced.

"Invitations to the summit were sent to 38 States. Of course, it is about both the member countries and those who want to cooperate with our organization. Some 32 countries have already confirmed their participation," he said at a press conference.

Also, Ushakov did not rule out that the BRICS summit in Kazan could become the largest foreign policy event ever held in Russia.

"I would like to point out that of these 32 countries, 24 countries have confirmed the participation of their leaders at the Kazan summit, eight countries will be represented by second or third persons," he added.

The presidential adviser indicated that all BRICS member countries will also participate in the summit, adding that nine of them will be represented at the highest level and one country, Saudi Arabia, will send a foreign minister.

In addition, he specified that the secretaries-general of the UN, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Eurasian Economic Union, the State of the Union and the president of the New Development Bank will attend the BRICS summit in Kazan.

In this context, Ushakov did not rule out that the list of participants at the BRICS summit in Kazan may be expanded.

"The doors of the BRICS are open for like-minded states that share the basic principles and objectives of our community," he said.

Moreover, Ushakov informed the West exerted pressure on the countries that will attend the summit.

"You know what the current situation is, of course, there was the pressure on this or that country, but, as I have already pointed out, the representation is very significant, including African countries. But, of course, there was pressure and I think it will continue to be exerted," Ushakov told reporters.

He also expressed the opinion that "not all countries of the world are interested in the success of the summit" in Kazan.

On January 1, Russia assumed the rotating presidency of the BRICS group for 2024, a year that began with the admission of new members.

In addition to Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, to which the group owes its acronym, Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia now also make up the group.

Currently, the group represents almost half of the world's population, more than 40% of global crude oil production and about 25% of world exports.

Russia plans to organize more than 250 events in 11 regions this year within the framework of its presidency, including the XIV BRICS Summit in Kazan.

Yandex Translate from Spanish.

https://noticiaslatam.lat/20241010/asesor-presidencial-informa-que-32-paises-confirman-la-participacion-en-la-cumbre-de-los-brics-1158146413.html

Russia's proposed settlement system will save BRICS up to $30 billion a year, 10.10.2024.

The Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank, together with experts, have developed proposals for creating a system of settlements between the BRICS countries. The set of measures will save up to $30 billion and add up to 1 percentage point to annual GDP, they estimated.

Russian financial authorities and experts have presented their vision of a settlement system between BRICS countries, which involves making payments in national currencies between local banks and establishing direct links between the central banks of the Commonwealth countries. The proposals are reflected in a report on improving the international monetary and financial system, prepared by the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank and the consulting company Yakov & Partners. The main points of the report were presented by Ilya Ivaninsky, an expert partner at Yakov & Partners, at a high-level seminar on improving the monetary and financial system of the BRICS countries in Moscow, an RBC correspondent reports.

If the set of proposed measures is implemented, the BRICS countries will be able to save up to $30 billion, and the additional growth of their economies could amount to up to 1 percentage point, Ivaninsky noted.

As Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov noted at the beginning of the seminar, the BRICS countries are currently the "locomotive" of global economic growth. "The average GDP growth rate of the BRICS countries is 4.4% annually, while in the G7 countries it is 1.7%. It is clear who is developing more dynamically," he said. The G7 countries include Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Great Britain and the United States. BRICS includes ten countries: Brazil, Egypt, India, Iran, China, the UAE, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia and South Africa.

https://www.rbc.ru/economics/10/10/2024/6707f5be9a7947a605ad89b3

Just saw this this;  What do you guys make of India doing this?

https://watcher.guru/news/brics-country-rejects-de-dollarization-embraces-the-us-dollar

andalusia wrote:Just saw this this;  What do you guys make of India doing this?

https://watcher.guru/news/brics-country-rejects-de-dollarization-embraces-the-us-dollar

Doing what? It's a bunch of sensationalism about nothing.

India was never 'de-dollarizing' or refusing trade in dollars or anything of the sort.
Newsflash - before 2022, Russia wasn't either

What India has been doing though is switching to trade in national currencies with Russia, and this process started well before 2022, and presumably with some other countries too.
And with the advent of the BRICS payment system, options for non-dollar trade will significantly expand for all members amongst themselves, including India. They're not trying to force the process onto anyone else though.

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/. The share of BRICS countries in the global GDP already exceeds the one of G7 and continues to grow, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the BRICS Business Forum.

"For example, let’s take 1992 - [the share of] the Group of Seven is 45.5%, and in the same year the BRICS countries [account for] 16.7% of global GDP. And now? In 2023 our association [accounts for] 37.4%, and the [share of] Group of Seven is 29.3%. The gap is widening and it will widen, this is inevitable," the Russian leader noted.

Putin stressed that BRICS plays a significant role in the global economy not only today.

"It is quite obvious that this role will increase in the future as well. The countries that are part of our association are in fact the drivers of global economic growth. And it is in BRICS that the main increase in global GDP will be generated in the foreseeable future," the Russian President said.

The Russian leader stressed that the joint work of BRICS to accelerate socio-economic growth and ensure sustainable development brings tangible results, and actually contributes to improving the well-being and quality of life of ordinary citizens of our countries. According to Putin, the figures speak for themselves. He cited statistics according to which the association's combined GDP is more than $60 trillion, and its total share in the world's gross product confidently exceeds the corresponding figure for the so-called Group of Seven and continues to grow.

"In recent decades, over 40% of the growth in global GDP, the entire global economic dynamics, came from the BRICS countries. Based on the results of the current year, the average rate of economic growth in BRICS is projected at 4%. This is higher than both the rates in the G7 countries - there it is only 1.7% - and the global rates. The global rates will be 3.2%," Putin said.

He also recalled that BRICS accounts for about a quarter of global goods exports, while companies from the association's countries dominate many key markets, including energy resources, metals, food, that is, markets for those goods without which sustainable economic development is impossible.

https://tass.com/politics/1857819

Putin offers the world something the West simply does not have, by Elena Karaeva for RiaNovosti. 10.18.2024.

There are few countries today that, on the eve of major international summits, would switch on a regime of complete openness for foreign guests and the foreign press. Both in disclosing geopolitical plans and regarding economic prospects. Russia's frankness before the start of BRICS knows no bounds.

As part of the organisation's business forum, which opened the day before, President Putin invited heads of the media of participating countries and those states that intend to join this largest international organization to a cup of tea. The Russian leader suggested that journalists discuss any topics that interest them, even the most pressing ones.

The press, of course, accepted the invitation. And not only because Putin is a wonderful and interesting interlocutor for them (and not just the head of the largest world power), but also because no one in the West speaks to the press with such sincerity.

If he speaks at all. Who and when was the last time they saw an unedited press conference or even a media briefing by Herr Scholz, without pre-agreed questions? Or Mr Macron? Or Mr Starmer lost in the London smog?

Let's spare Biden, he's practically about to be demobilized. But it would be imprudent not to mention America in principle.

Because any dialogue there with any press of either candidate for some reason always and constantly causes a monstrous scandal and an exchange of expressions far from parliamentary.

The American media itself, if it doesn't like a character, simply trolls him (or her). And, on the contrary, it literally licks the tongue of someone who is ideologically close to this media.

By the way, exactly the same applies to the press of the pan-European bloc in relation to their local bosses.

Ideology rules, slogans prevail, and the media have completely forgotten that their job is information, commentary and representation of the interests of society (and not pleasing the PR people of the bosses). Handing out labels and sticking on labels of various levels of "moral appearance" is not the press's responsibility.

After all, hostility and prejudice are a very bad, unsuitable replacement for a calm assessment of events taking place in a world that is changing rapidly.

But that's just an aside.

And if not by the way and specifically, then the summit itself in Kazan , perhaps the largest this year, look at it either globally or regionally, is not about confrontation, not about “undermining” supposed partners, not about differentiating these same partners by the color of their ties (for example) or by the volume of GDP, not about dividing the interlocutors into “seniors” and “juniors”.

In a world where the rules have been set by "predator" states for decades, BRICS today says, paraphrasing Blok's "Scythians": "Gentlemen, we will become brothers!"

And what could be more attractive in interstate relations than trust, goodwill, regardless of who holds what views, what social structure they prefer, and when the main principle is work for the common good and creativity? Nothing. There is nothing more attractive than this kind of approach.

We have seen diametrically opposed principles so many times.
We are pretty fed up with it.

We have observed how even when joining a bloc/organization/union it is mandatory to curtsy to someone in charge, to kiss this “in charge” on the shoulder, and generally to enter and exit the important offices of these “in charge” in a half-squat.

We have seen violations of agreements signed, it would seem, at the highest level. Moreover, they were violated almost immediately, because these agreements were signed exclusively for show.

We saw the brazen cheap card bluff of those who swore almost by their own "mother" to lull everyone's vigilance, washing themselves some gold with this lie. By deception - so by deception, by blood - well, then, "it's their own fault", there was no need to relax.

So, Russia, as the host of the current forum, as a country, as a state-civilization, offers completely different relations. Both structurally and substantively.

Geopolitics, in which conflicts, even the most difficult ones, are always resolved solely on the basis of trust, honesty and the ability to reconcile common interests. At the same time, observing politeness, respecting differences in approaches to solving problems and taking into account differences in fundamental values.

Russia offers peace - which, in fact, it has been doing for the last decades - without hostility. This does not mean at all that we will allow gestures to be made to us and towards us or actions to be taken that pose a threat to our country. Those who want a Russian response to this will receive it, hear it and feel it.

But hostility and malice (the flip side of complexes and envy) are and will be in relations between states that are already members of BRICS and those who intend to join the organization at this summit and later.

Russia proclaims that it will build a new world order together and diligently with friends and partners. Honest. Fair. Trusting. Such relations and such ideas are in demand by billions of people on the planet today. The future belongs to this new geopolitics. And that is why such geopolitics will win.

https://ria.ru/20241018/putin-1978812265.html

Just saw this this; What do you guys make of India doing this?

First of all BRICS is not a dictatorship, if India wants to continue using US dollars then it can continue to do so... I rather suspect they don't want any changes in currency because they are paying Russia in Rupees for energy which forces Russia to spend that money in India and not convert it and use it for other things.

Of course this payment system is going to be created whether India takes part or not, but not taking part in the creation of the system means they will not have much of a say in how it works which might be a problem for them later on.

The BRICS countries that adopt and embrace the new money system will be less likely to trade with India if India continues to demand the use of US dollars because simply joining BRICS might make US dollars and Euros a problem for most members new and old.

I am confident that the US will throw them a few bones but in a fit of rage further down the track will use their dollar as a weapon against India and India will appreciate using a currency the US does not control for their trade with other countries around the world.

The US dollar is over as the international trade currency unless the US lets Russia back into BRICS and returns seized assets... but that is never going to happen... even trump is not going to drop all the sanctions imposed on Russia... even if he wanted to US politicians on both sides wont do that.

They're not trying to force the process onto anyone else though.

But it is cheaper than buying US dollars if you are allowed to, so it saves money, and if you are buying products from Russia then you will need to be part of this new system.

Once you are part of the system it gives you access to a growing number of countries that will also be part of the system for trade and cooperation.

The BRICS vs G7 GDP comparison is misleading. BRICS states are undergoing primary development with real GDP growth. The G7 has been running
a debt Ponzi scheme for several decades at least. I would not take claims about the size of the G7 GDP at face value. We also have a type of zero sum
situation in this case. The colonialist parasites in the G7 have been leeching off the developing world, continuing their centuries long colonial program.
Now the colonies (if not directly, then financially through debt) are diverting resources to themselves which would have been easily flowing to the self-anointed
masters of the universe before. So the debt-inflated G7 GDP is also being squeezed by loss of free or dirt cheap inputs and must shrink without
compensating stimulus of which there is none. The G7 is currently in a cluster f*ck where it is also rotting via DEI woke inanity that is killing meritocratic
culture and injecting workers and managers who are grossly incompetent into key jobs. This is self-sabotaging of the economy.

The rot of the G7 must be understood by at least some of the clown elites in charge of the west. This means that the risk of WWIII is insanely high as
these elites will try to save their decaying empire by destroying the competition. If you listen to these clowns yap, they believe that they can defeat
Russia and carve it up. This is a pure colonial plan to restore free/cheap inputs to the western economy. But Russia is not the only target, the whole of
BRICS and the global south is. The parasites want to restore their dominant position and think they can achieve this through war, even if nukes are involved.

The west only had about a 10 year period to infiltrate and exploit the Soviet economy, they ramraided the entire collection of countries and even today western CEOs or should I say ex Soviet citizens that now own major shares in all the important companies worth anything at all in Russia and the former soviet states that now probably live in comfort in the west for their services trying to destroy Russia and all the other Soviet republics, got screwed by their own western patrons when Russia got cut out of SWIFT because they could no longer funnel their massive incomes out to the west. There was a case of an oligarch with nieces in New York living an expensive life on the 20 million a year grandpa was making from the port he owned... it was all going to funding nice apartments and jewelery and furs and opulence for spoiled little girls... well when he couldn't transfer the cash out, what he was doing came to the attention of officials and they seized his ownership and now the income from that port has massively increased because the income it generated began to be invested in upgrades and improvements that made things better for everyone in the port... and that is what is wrong with the west.

The owners think everything belongs to them and don't invest the money their companies generate into making the company better or more efficient... it is the same across the board... and not just in Russia... in China they made money but they didn't give all that money to the CEOs and share holders... the money was invested in improving equipment and tools and in training and in the workers and also in new technologies... which is why their batteries are the best and why their solar panels are the best and why their electric vehicles are the best and they continue to invest in further improving their products and their ability to produce them. They are even working to reduce emissions in production and to recycle... the stuff the west talks about but there never seems to be enough money left over for that after the cost of the CEOs yacht is taken into account.

The west has separated itself from Russia thinking Russia was a tick stealing its life blood and it was doing Russia a favour, but in actual fact the opposite is true... the tick has released its grip on the animal and the animal has never felt healthier.

I hate to say it but Russia really needed a clean break from the west, and the conflict in the Ukraine is about the only thing that could have achieved the current situation.

If the west had been sensible and Kiev withdrew the anti Russian language laws and negotiated autonomy for the four regions that ended up joining the RF they would have saved hundreds of billions of dollars and their weapons and equipment stocks would be normal.... and their reputation as a bully would remain intact.

The using up the old ammo and weapons likely pleases the US MIC no end but is going to be an economic nightmare for the EU and US because new weapons and ammo are going to be more expensive than ever before and while it is new stuff it is clear Russia already has better stuff.

Ironically the best countries in the EU could do is wait for the sht to settle and then replace all their old stuff with new Russian made stuff.... The AK-19 is HATO calibre and the underbarrel grenade launcher uses US 40mm grenades... the French could ask to buy Krasnopol-M 155mm guided artillery shells which are cheap and the 152mm rounds are fully combat proven... lucky they backed out of that deal previously or the Orcs might have been more effective.

The West is worried about this challenge to their financial exploitation. https://en.thebell.io/russia-pushes-brics-to-take-anti-western-turn/

andalusia wrote:The West is worried about this challenge to their financial exploitation. https://en.thebell.io/russia-pushes-brics-to-take-anti-western-turn/

That article belongs squarely in the 'Russian propaganda' thread

Russia pushes BRICS to take anti-Western turn
Wanting to set up a payment system immune to Western sanctions (or anyone else's) is called 'pushing BRICS to take an anti-Western turn'? And is it only Russia that's pushing for it? I presume this is what's being referred to by the title, the entire article doesn't name anything more nefarious than that.

Before the war, BRICS agendas lacked much substance but, since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine
Not that Russia didn't invade the Ukraine, but it's a tell-tale early warning sign of NATO horseshit when articles mention 'full-scale invasion of Ukraine' multiple times throughout as this one does.

Russia, supported by China (the real driver of BRICS expansion) is trying to make the club into a leading anti-Western platform.
China is not the real driver of BRICS expansion. Else why did they wait until the SMO started?
In reality, the West themselves are the real drivers of BRICS expansion. After everyone witnessed their failed financial assault on Russia, countries around the world realized that the West is not only prepared to break all their own rules to destroy whoever it doesn't like, but also that the West's vaunted economic and sanctions instruments are not the WMD they were portrayed as; Russia withstood them fine.
And so since then these countries themselves have been lining up to apply for BRICS membership. That's all there is to it.

The summit will also discuss how to replace existing international financial organizations, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
There wouldn't be any need if said international financial organizations were really international as claimed. They ain't.

Russia was a member of the IMF, the World Bank, the Bank of International Settlements and other international financial groups. But they have now all frozen relations with Russia
Case in point

Russia has proposed an alternative payment system that would be based on a chain of commercial banks connected via the central banks of BRICS countries. It would use blockchain to store and transfer digital tokens backed by national currencies.
That's one of many proposals in fact, and they didn't all come from Russia either

(the authorities in Russia, India and China restrict cross-border operations and their currencies are not fully convertible)
In fact the Russian rouble is a fully convertible, free-floating currency and can be bought & sold by anyone at any time

Most importantly, economies of all BRICS countries, apart from India, are tied to Chinese demand for raw materials.
As opposed to the economies of G7 countries, which totally aren't tied to Chinese consumer demand and outsourced production?

Additionally, while inflation in China is stable, in the other countries it is more volatile, leading to a desynchronization of monetary policy. Any payment system would likely suffer the same fate.
Don't see why. It's a payment system that's being proposed, not a BRICS currency. Does being part of the SWIFT payment system mean that you get affected by Argentina's or Turkey's inflation?

Trade within BRICS is also asymmetric: with the exception of Russia and China, there are no major trading partners.
Russia and India, Russia and Egypt, India and China, Iran and China, Brazil and China, South Africa and China?
Who are these bozos who wrote the article

And only Moscow and Tehran have a need for an alternative system; all the others are happy using SWIFT, and reserve currencies.
Everyone has a need for it because everyone is worried about being next to be cancelled and sanctioned and have their assets frozen and whatever. And even if they aren't worried about it, they still won't like the idea of any group of countries having that amount of leverage over them. As far as any BRICS member or prospective member is concerned, the more options for payment the better.

And, if BRICS were to grow into a large body, it would end up duplicating many of the functions – and dysfunctions – of other multilateral groups such as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) or the G77.
As long as they don't include the Western nations or their smattering of trojan horses around the world then it should work okay. It's not an anti-Western bloc and it's not meant to take anti-Western decisions. It's meant to create multipolar organizations and mechanisms for a multipolar world where every country is on an even playing field with every other.

And that means countries wishing to join are not motivated by development or economic growth, but opportunism.
Why is opportunism a bad thing?

Moscow, as the loudest critic of Washington, will seek dominance, undermining any horizontal interaction in pursuit of development.
Accusing Moscow, without sound basis, of planning to do that which they themselves are already doing and have been for centuries. Classic

While the Kremlin has neither the means, technology, nor weight in the world economy to offer an alternative to the existing global financial system,
If the Kremlin had none of that then Russia would never have withstood all these super-duper sanctions and financial assaults they directed against it.
But anyway, what are you worried about so much then if that's the case?

it seems set on stoking anti-U.S. feelings wherever it can.
Nothing particularly wrong with that either, the West made an enemy out of Russia on their own accord, so they have nothing to complain about. But truth be told, Russia really doesn't have to try, it's the US itself that is stoking anti-US feelings wherever it can.

Putting Russia on the blacklist would likely halt cooperation in the defense sector, as well as aviation, logistics and atomic energy projects. It would also severely complicate Russian exports of oil, grain, uranium, metals and fertilizers on which many countries depend. This would cause worldwide price increases, and inflation.
Yeah fellas, don't bet on it. If it was as easy as that to cut off all of Russia's foreign trade then you bet your noggin that the West would have already found a pretext to do so through yet one more of their puppet organizations. If they're not going to do it at the next meeting then that would only be because they recognize that it won't make a difference other than to expose themselves and their methods once more.

FATF itself strives for neutrality, and seeks to avoid allegations of politicization: it’s one thing to suspend Russia’s membership because of the war, but quite another to blacklist a country that formally plays by the rules.
Now they managed to contradict themselves in one and the same sentence. How can said organization be neutral and avoid politicization if it suspends members because of 'the war'? What does this war or any war have to do with the organization's actual claimed activities, that being combating money-laundering?

Global rating agencies stopped evaluating Russia at the start of the war in Ukraine, and withdrew the country’s ratings from publication.
Goes to show how global these rating agencies actually are.
And then the next article will be complaining about how BRICS is setting up its own rating agency and how Russia put them up to do it.

Putin's Hidden Vulnerability
And with a link to an article titled like that you know these clowns are on someone's payroll. Which was obvious reading this article anyway. But more egregious than that; it's all simply amateurish.

There is nothing anti west about Russia or BRICS... but both are actively anti colonial, which explains the appeal to the rest of the world.

The sooner the west accepts its colonial evil past and changes its bully tactic ways the sooner it can join the rest of the world on a much more healthy trajectory... healthy for everyone and not the 1% of 1% of the countries.

The West will have to choose: join BRICS or lose, by Pëtr Akopov for RiaNovosti. 10.22.2024.

The BRICS summit opens today in Kazan — the largest international event in Russia since the start of the special operation in Ukraine. Of course, it is difficult to come up with a more obvious demonstration of the fact that all attempts by the West to "isolate Russia" have failed, but in principle this became clear already in 2022, and after what Israel did in Gaza (and now in Lebanon), the falsity of Western calls to "unite the whole world to punish the aggressor" became clear even to the most simple-minded amateurs.

So the symbolic significance of the fact that the heads of 24 countries will come to visit Vladimir Putin is fundamental first and foremost for the West itself: unable to ignore this fact, they are trying to explain it with a variety of reasons - from their own mistakes in working with the Global South to Russia's manipulation of anti-colonialist and anti-Western rhetoric. However, the growth in popularity of BRICS is completely objective - and it cannot be understood in isolation from the large-scale transformation of the entire world order.

BRICS was created less than two decades ago, but even then, in 2006, it was clear that the world was entering a new era. The formation of a new wor although neither the speed of this process nor the intensity of the struggle were yet clear, everyone understood that the scale of the changes would be enormous and universal. Just a few months after the formation of BRICS (at that time the association still consisted of four countries), Vladimir Putin gave a speech in Munich, in which he warned of the futility of the West's attempts (and first of all the United States ) to "shepherd the peoples" - in essence, this was a statement of the failure of plans to build a unipolar world. The following year, 2008, the global financial crisis broke out, the blame for which lay entirely with the United States, and given that it was they who controlled the global financial system, the entire planet had to pay the bill for American greed. By this time, the US had already turned Iraq , the key country in the Middle East , around, so the "Arab Spring" that began three years later with its grave consequences for the entire region was essentially predetermined. From 2011, there was only one step to 2014 - when Russia entered into an open geopolitical conflict with the West because of its attempts to take Ukraine for itself. And then, increasingly, to 2022 - when the conflict took on a military form, albeit an indirect one.

All these years the West was weakening, and the Global South was strengthening. The weakening of the West was an objective process, with geopolitical, historical, economic and other explanations. But the main thing was that the half-millennium era of Western dominance was ending - and this was manifested in the form of the collapse of the project of globalization according to Anglo-Saxon rules, on which the USA and Europe had placed their main stake . Globalization was not finished - and it began to crumble not because Russia or individual countries of the Global South rebelled against it, but because of errors in its very design. It was impossible to embrace the immensity, that is, to force the entire world to live according to rules (political, financial and economic, trade, cultural, ideological) that were beneficial to the West and written in the West. Of course, the suicide of the USSR greatly contributed to the Anglo-Saxon "dizziness from success" , after which the majority of the elite in the West really believed in the "end of history" and the advent of the era of "global government". However, by the mid-2000s it became clear that the West was not coping with the role of global customer-architect-contractor-builder – everything was going to hell.

That is when BRICS emerged – initially as a tool for coordination between non-Western countries that understood that the West itself was going in the wrong direction and was dragging the entire world along with it. Over the past years, the West has weakened even more, and this concerns not only its position on the world stage, but also its internal state. In the middle of the last decade, the United States entered a period of heightened turbulence – and not only will it not be able to get out of it even in the medium term, but it also risks falling into serious internal turmoil. This does not mean that America no longer has the strength to fight to maintain its position as a global hegemon, but it does mean that it must choose between attempts to defend this hegemony on the world stage and deep internal reforms. However, the current American establishment does not want and cannot give up its claims to global domination (to call things by their proper names), which means that Washington’s geopolitical strategy and practice will not change without large-scale internal upheavals. That is, America will try to play on all boards at once – containing those whom it sees as a real or potential threat to its hegemony.

What does this mean for BRICS? That the bloc will have to become increasingly anti-American – not because its goal is to confront the US, but because the US itself will not leave it alone. Any projects to build an alternative global architecture (financial, trade, military) are categorically unacceptable for America, especially those that unite key countries of the non-Western world – China , India , Russia, the Arab world and Latin Americans. And the US will increase pressure on the BRICS countries to prevent or at least slow down their movement towards the integration of the same financial systems.

BRICS did not raise the issue of expansion until 2022, and only then did the association begin accepting new members. Of the six invited (and asking) countries, one dropped out immediately: the pro-American and anti-Chinese President Miley came to power in Argentina . Saudi Arabia slightly stalled its entry : Prince Mohammed took a break, and full entry into BRICS will probably be confirmed at the current summit in Kazan. However, Iran , Egypt , the UAE and Ethiopia joined BRICS, which went from being “five” to “nine”. With this expansion, BRICS has become a truly global association, because previously it did not represent the two-billion-strong Islamic world at all, and now it has as many as three countries. And several more very significant countries of the Islamic world are in line: even if the issue with Saudi Arabia is still up in the air, many Muslim states have shown interest, from Turkey to Malaysia.

Of course, there are many disagreements between individual BRICS countries. The most notable are those between China and India (although the current summit will feature the first official meeting between Xi Jinping and Modi in four and a half years — they have not held talks since the border conflict in the Himalayas in the spring of 2020). And it is precisely these that the Anglo-Saxons are trying to play on, especially with regard to those countries that they cannot directly pressure. However, the existing disagreements are nothing compared to what unites the BRICS+ countries, and that is the understanding that the West has neither the right nor the ability to impose its “picture of the world order” on everyone else. There will always be disagreements within BRICS about the desired speed and methods for facilitating the process of “the decline of the West,” but no one questions the fact that the end of Western hegemony is in the interests of all countries consolidating around BRICS.

In fact, by the way, it also meets the interests of the Western countries themselves, including the USA, but they have already become simply carriers of a parasitic and anti-national globalist project and cannot defend their national interests. But if they still find the will and strength to refuse the role imposed by them, BRICS will be happy to cooperate in developing the rules of a new world order and building a new world order. Which will be built in any case - together with the West or against its will.

https://ria.ru/20241022/briks-1979185577.html

The West will have to choose: join BRICS or lose

To be able to choose to join BRICS any western country will first have to stop imposing unilateral sanctions on other countries... So Turkey can join, but most of the rest can't unless they drop the western sanctions on Russia and China and Iran and other member states.

I can't see them dropping those any time soon so lose it is.

The west has become polarised and less tolerant and has shown its true face in places like Georgia and Hungary and Slovakia and now Moldova and I suspect more locals are going to realise they are just cannon fodder to be thrown at the Russians to weaken them even just a little.

Their lives are worth nothing to these people...

The US has spotted its biggest nightmare in Kazan, by Victoria Nikiforova for RiaNovosti. 10.23.2024.

"Cooperation within the BRICS framework is not directed <...> against the dollar or other currencies," the Russian president's press secretary Dmitry Peskov hastened to reassure the public.

This was a response to a series of downright panicky publications that erupted in the American media on the eve of the Kazan summit. "Putin plans to defeat the dollar," the mouthpiece of the Western financial elite, The Economist, proclaimed. "The goal of BRICS is to lead countries away from the dollar system," The New York Times worries.

The US is truly afraid of global de-dollarization, their leading financiers are openly talking about it. They understand perfectly well that trillions of green papers have long been a financial pyramid - when it collapses, it will bury all the power of the West under itself.

But who is to blame for the inevitable collapse of the dollar scam? Is it the Russians again, and Putin personally? Have they lured the leaders of the world's leading economies to Russia , are they plotting against Washington and building intrigues?

Obviously not. Neither India , nor China , nor Brazil , nor South Africa , nor other BRICS members are going to stop their economic cooperation with the United States and Europe . Trade is ongoing and expanding, and the same dollar continues to be used.

Nevertheless, there is panic overseas. The Economist explains what exactly the kings of Western finance are afraid of. Firstly, the BRICS countries are creating their own credit agency, which will independently – and not at the whistle from overseas – assess the economic potential of countries. Secondly, the New Development Bank is investing in infrastructure projects, gradually replacing such structures long used by the Americans as, for example, the IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development - aka World Bank).

But the most frightening thing for the US financial hegemony is the launch of the BRICS Bridge payment system. Russian financiers say that it will be up and running next year and will allow central banks of different countries to directly conduct transactions in national digital currencies. This will be an order of magnitude faster and safer than settlements in dollars. Even The Economist sadly notes that such transfers will take seconds, not days, and quotes the Federal Reserve: "The efficiency of digital money will destroy the use of the dollar in cross-border transfers."

The thing is that all settlements with transfers into dollars are carried out through American banks under the full control of Big Brother. It is long and unsafe. The Americans, roughly speaking, steal. It is clear that all this is politely called "freezing", "financial sanctions" or some other politically correct terms. But, in fact, it is ordinary robbery. The Americans have successfully robbed Iran , China, Russia, Venezuela , Saudi Arabia and so on many times.

So who's your doctor then? It was the attempt to steal everything that was lying around that compromised the American dollar the most. For a long time, countries tolerated this abuse because the dollar-based system was generally convenient and efficient. But now the risks far outweigh the benefits.

Moreover, there has never been a reserve currency in history that has accumulated such a gigantic, simply incomprehensible debt as the US national debt (35 trillion), plus 17.5 trillion in American household debt.

Nobody wants to kill the dollar. After all, many countries have dollar debt obligations worth hundreds of billions, and losing them would be unpleasant and offensive. So what, the Americans have taken money from everyone, and then they will wave their hands, saying the sacramental "I forgive everyone who I owe"?

However, the dollar is doomed to suicide, and it is being pushed to suicide by its own masters. Sovereign states are simply forced to flee from toxic greenbacks - to support national currencies, despite their obvious volatility, to experiment with cryptocurrency, to develop national digital currencies.

The economic power of BRICS is unrivaled: the alliance is ahead of the G7 countries in terms of share of global GDP and represents more than half of the world's population. This is almost a quarter of all world trade, almost half of all oil and 30 percent of the Earth's territory . Of course, if they come to a unified decision on new financial instruments, all the old ones will immediately go to the trash.

But there is no ideological hatred of the American dollar here, it simply does not fulfill its role as a reliable reserve currency. So experiments are underway within the BRICS framework - nothing personal, just business. Isn't this what the Chicago boys once taught us?

Well, Russia has learned those lessons well, and that is why it is today leading the movement to create a global financial system that is an alternative to the ugly casino that the Americans have turned the Bretton Woods system into.

If the dollar fails to compete fairly with world currencies, if our payment systems turn out to be better than Western ones, there will be no one to complain to - the market has really decided. Whether this will turn into shock therapy for the US and its European vassals - as they say, we will see. But if anything happens, we will, of course, throw them some humanitarian aid - frozen chicken legs, domestic pasta, let the citizens feed themselves.

https://ria.ru/20241023/ssha-1979397587.html

Not a great one for photos as these events, especially the formal ones, but this one pretty much sums up the new world heading our way. The leaders of the 3 largest countries in the World, in terms of population or size, clearly at ease with each other. They know they are the future.

This is the 'Heartland' feared by Mackinder back in the early 1900s writ large. The leaders of the 'Rimland' have lost and whilst they or their advisors are aware of it, accepting it is a difficult or even impossible task. This photo needs to be on the wall of every Western leader/foreign minister's office as a reminder.

Erdogan arrives 

Erdogan gets punished. An terror attack against the aerospace industry. Something he is personally quite proud of. Rules based terrorism.