Eve, here. We have repeatedly stated that while BRICS is an important indicator of the desire to create a new organization outside the post-World War II Western structures, its supporters are not only far ahead of BRICS’ level of development, but also misplaced in their claims about their objectives. We have repeatedly pointed out that the last two official declarations after the BRICS Annual Conference indeed reaffirmed the role of the IMF, World Bank, and WTO. BRICS does not intend to replace these groups. Instead, it wants to give the Global South more influence (which, as we’ve discussed, will never happen with the IMF; its voting structure gives the United States a permanent veto).
This is not to say that BRICS are not important. By accelerating the establishment of bilateral trade and payment mechanisms, it is proving to be an important forum for carrying out one of the most important tasks of reducing U.S. coercive power.
Needless to say, the BRICS military alliance goes far beyond what is currently being considered. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate that BRICS touts are trumpeting this kind of misinformation.
Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst specializing in the global systemic transition to multipolarity in the new Cold War. He holds a doctorate from MGIMO, which is affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Originally published on his website
The timing comes amid ongoing dialogue with the United States and its role in mediating between Russia and Ukraine, but if the volatile President Trump’s threat perception towards the BRICS deteriorates again, the talks could come to an abrupt end as Trump’s fickleness proves and his fears need to be allayed.
Sergei Ryabkov, who serves as both Deputy Foreign Minister and BRICS Sherpa, recently clarified: “We would like to remind you that BRICS is not a military alliance, nor is it a collective security organization committed to collective defense. It was never designed as such and has no plans to transform for that purpose.” It also acknowledged that “as far as the recent naval exercises in South Africa are concerned, BRICS member states participated as sovereign states. This was not a BRICS event.”
The first part refers to speculation that BRICS will turn into a security bloc, a goal not only not included in the statement but also extremely difficult to achieve due to the membership of rival pairs such as Egypt-Ethiopia and Iran-UAE. However, Pepe Escobar, a friend of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, misled many people into thinking that BRICS had security goals like the SCO, stating as a fact that “BRICS/SCO will eventually merge in the long run” in a publicly funded Sputnik article last September.
As for the second part of his statement, this relates to the widespread misinformation about the January exercises off the coast of South Africa. The exercise was incorrectly described by many as a “BRICS naval exercise” as it was the only country invited to participate. As explained here, “South Africa allowed this misperception to spread as a symbolic act of defiance against President Trump given his hatred of the BRICS, and to signal to a domestic audience that it had friends around the world amidst tensions with the United States.”
Mr. Ryabkov is one of Russia’s top diplomats, a key member of BRICS, and likely to replace Mr. Lavrov if he steps down, so his words regarding Russia’s foreign policy carry great weight. This is particularly important regarding the BRICS, whose portrayal in Russia’s “global media ecosystem” has so far been overly shaped by a soft power approach known as “Potemkinism”, or the creation of alternative realities for strategic purposes.
Sputnik undoubtedly allowed Pepe to discredit speculation that BRICS would eventually merge into the SCO for this very reason. This is because the power that comes with declaring this in one of Russia’s publicly funded international media flagships would lead many people to believe it to be true. However, after Mr. Rybakov officially clarified that such a plan does not exist and never has existed, it is very likely that this aspect of “Potemkinism” – the creation of an alternative reality regarding the BRICS – will soon end.
It may not be an arbitrary decision, but a strategic decision considering the situation. President Trump threatened to impose 100% tariffs on BRICS countries in November 2024 and again in January 2025, citing the perceived threat against them. The United States has since resumed talks with Russia and begun mediating between Russia and Ukraine, but President Trump is notoriously volatile and could abandon these efforts if the perceived threat against the BRICS worsens again. Therefore, Russia is interested in preemptively alleviating fear.
To that end, it is reportedly considering even a limited return to the dollar system as part of a grand promise to the United States, although Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said such a scenario would require the United States to lift Russia’s ban on the currency so it could compete with other countries. In any case, the important point is that BRICS is neither fundamentally de-dollarizing nor turning into a security alliance, and Russia’s recent clarification of the latter reality is likely intended to annoy the ill-tempered President Trump.
