Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, who also serves as his country’s BRICS Sherpa, shared some insight into the group during his latest interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda. It’ll be summarized for the reader’s convenience and then analyzed since some of what he said might surprise casual observers. He began by accusing those who describe BRICS as an anti-Western bloc of “trying to create an image of Russia and China as enemies and malicious violators of the ‘rules-based order’.”
This sharply contradicts the narrative pushed by top influencers in the Alt-Media Community (AMC), including so-called “Non-Russian Pro-Russians” (NRPRs), who insist that BRICS is against the West. It’s not, in fact, Rybakov clarified that its only purpose is to increase non-Western countries’ involvement in global governance. In his words, “We are committed to a positive, rather than confrontational, agenda. This distinguishes us from many formats created by the US and its European allies.”
To that end, BRICS has established special mechanisms in a wide range of spheres over its existence with a focus on economic and financial cooperation but also branching into health, sports, transport, and other domains too. On the topic of finance, which is what most commentators focus on when they discuss BRICS, Ryabkov stressed the importance of using national currencies in intra-BRICS trade and expanding the New Development Bank, but he said that it’s premature to discuss a single currency.
Readers can review these analyses, here, here, and here to learn more about how BRICS, and Russia in particular, isn’t proactively “de-dollarizing” like many members of the AMC were falsely led to believe but is only responding to the US’ weaponization of the dollar. To emphasize this point, Ryabkov quoted what Putin said during last fall’s BRICS Summit in Kazan to remind everyone that “BRICS is not at all against the dollar”, but it’s unclear whether this policy reaffirmation will correct Trump’s misperceptions.
In any case, the importance of Ryabkov’s interview rests in the fact that he sought to clarify Russia’s approach towards BRICS, which is still grossly misunderstood by the Mainstream Media and the AMC alike. Each, driven by polar opposite ideological motives, largely pushes the narrative that Russia is weaponizing BRICS against the West. The Mainstream Media does this to fearmonger about them and thus justify more aggressive policies while the AMC does it to rally their audience and boost morale.
The end result is that few know that Russia only sees BRICS as a platform for accelerating financial multipolarity processes in order to then elevate its members’ involvement in global governance, albeit via purely voluntary cooperation between them. It’s precisely due to BRICS’ lack of obligations that little of tangible significance has been achieved, though that’s not a criticism per se since it was always unrealistic to expect such a diverse group of asymmetrically sized economies to agree on much.
While BRICS is unlikely to deal a deathblow to the dollar like many have come to think that it might, regardless of their opinion on that outcome, it can still lead to the creation of more non-Western platforms, foster South-South integration, and bolster national currencies. Its talking club format and hundreds of joint events every year are also helpful ways of sharing relevant experiences. All in all, even though BRICS isn’t what many thought that it was like Ryabkov just reminded them, it’s still important.
