By Vladimir Soldatkin,
KAZAN Russia
Russia wants the BRICS summit to showcase the rising clout of the non-Western world, but Moscow's partners from China, India, Brazil and the Arab world are urging President Vladimir Putin to find a way to end the war in Ukraine.
The BRICS group now accounts
for 45% of the world's population and 35% of its economy, based on purchasing
power parity, though China accounts for over half of its economic might.
Putin, who is cast by the West
as a war criminal, told reporters from BRICS nations that "BRICS does not
put itself into opposition to anyone", and that the shift in the drivers
of global growth was simply a fact.
"This is an association
of states that work together based on common values, a common vision of
development and, most importantly, the principle of taking into account each
other's interests," he said
The BRICS summit takes place
as global
finance chiefs gather in Washington amid war in the Middle East as
well as Ukraine, a flagging Chinese economy and worries that the U.S.
presidential election could ignite new trade battles.
Putin, who ordered troops into
Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, was peppered
with questions by BRICS reporters about the prospects for a ceasefire in
Ukraine.
Putin's answer was, in short,
that Moscow would not trade away the four regions of eastern Ukraine that it
says are now part of Russia, even though parts of them remain outside its
control, and that it wanted its long-term security interests taken into account
in Europe.
Two Russian sources said that,
while there was increasing talk in Moscow of a possible ceasefire agreement,
there was nothing concrete yet - and that the world was awaiting the result of
the Nov. 5 presidential election in the United States.
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