In the conditions of international isolation, Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing with particular attention for the BRICS summit, which is to be held in Kazan on October 22-24.
Not only the leaders of the member countries of the association, but also many high-ranking guests will gather in the capital of Tatarstan. According to the aide to the Russian president Yuriy Ushakov, representatives of 32 countries will participate in the BRICS summit, and 24 countries will be represented by state leaders.
Among the participants in the meeting, a special guest is expected - UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, for whom the Kremlin is already preparing a warm reception. Although the office of the UN Secretary-General has not commented on the upcoming visit of his boss, the arrival of Guterres was announced by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Vershinin, and later confirmed by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova. writes cyprus-daily.news.
But has Guterres calculated the risks of his participation in the BRICS meeting? Or does he no longer care about his own reputation or the image of the organization he represents?
For the Kremlin, the Kazan summit is a platform on which Putin seeks to demonstrate that he is not in international isolation. The platform on which he plans to unite the countries of the Global South around Russia. The platform on which he is trying, together with Xi Jinping, to build an anti-Western bloc.
But at the BRICS summit in Kazan, Putin will also push an alternative Sino-Brazilian “peace plan” of Ukrainian to resolve the “Ukrainian crisis”. Its aims are to reduce already weak support for Ukraine from countries in the Global South and to undermine Kiev's efforts to host the second peace summit.
The visit of the UN Secretary General to an aggressor country that threatens the world with nuclear weapons is a show of contempt for the victims of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These are new arguments for Moscow in its dialogue with the Global South. And this is a gift to Putin, who wants to destroy the existing world order and international law, asserting the power of the strong.
The mere presence of the UN Secretary General in Kazan will create for the Kremlin not only a favorable information background for the BRICS meeting, many of whose members seek to turn this association into an anti-Western alliance. The arrival of Guterres will give Russian propaganda an opportunity to shout from all television screens and social networks that the UN supports the promotion of the Sino-Brazilian plan to resolve the “Ukraine crisis”.
The Sino-Brazilian plan is "packaged" in beautiful and correct words about “respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and the principles of the UN Charter”. But in reality, this plan does not provide for this. Just as it does not provide for the aggressor's responsibility and payment for destruction in Ukraine.
Behind the six points of this plan lies the freezing of the conflict, depriving Ukraine of the right to liberate the territory occupied by Russia.
Now the UN is experiencing a serious crisis and Guterres' authority has been undermined both by his position during the Russian-Ukrainian war and by his reaction to events in the Middle East. After Guterres failed to unequivocally condemn Iran's latest missile attack on Israel, Tel Aviv declared the Secretary-General a person unwelcome.
And if we take into account that Guterres did not participate in the peace summit organized in Switzerland, then against this background the trip to Russia, which is waging an unjust and aggressive war against Ukraine, is more than an obvious manifestation of sympathy for the aggressor state .
And this is not the first time these sympathies have appeared. Guterres had previously been so interested in reviving the grain deal that he was willing to accommodate Russia's interests. In particular, he proposed lifting financial sanctions imposed by the EU against the Russian Agricultural Bank, using a specially created subsidiary of the Russian bank for this purpose, insuring the Russian ships that will export grain from Ukrainian attacks, as well as providing access on Russian ships transporting food products and fertilizers to EU ports.
These proposals by Guterres actually nullified a number of international sanctions against Russia. The UN Secretary-General justified his desire to resume the grain deal with the desire to avoid a global food crisis. But in fact, as the US notes, Guterres' actions have “undermined broader efforts to hold Moscow accountable for its actions in Ukraine”.
Even if Guterres goes to Kazan with good intentions to achieve a just peace in Ukraine, Russian propaganda will present his visit in a light favorable to Putin in Russia and the countries of the Global South. After all, Guterres' participation in the BRICS meeting could lead not only to his discredit as Secretary-General, but also to the discredit of the UN.