Iran Press/ Europe: The Russian President Vladimir Putin took multiple shots at the West on the opening day of an economic summit in South Africa, using a prerecorded speech that was aired on giant screens Tuesday to rail at what he called “illegitimate sanctions” on his country and threatening to cut off Ukraine’s grain exports permanently.
Vladimir Putin has addressed a summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies virtually to avoid an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant for his arrest for Ukraine conflict.
His 17-minute speech recorded in advance centered on the war in Ukraine and Russia’s relationship with the West even though South African officials had said East-West frictions should not dominate the first in-person BRICS summit since before the COVID-19 pandemic and hoped to guide the conversation away from the deteriorating geopolitical climate.
The Brics countries represent about 40% of the world’s population and a quarter of global GDP, but the group is considering expansion. Leaders from more than 40 countries, largely from Africa and elsewhere in the global south, flew in for the three-day summit in Johannesburg alongside Lula, China’s Xi Jinping and India’s Narendra Modi. According to the South African organisers, many of those countries have expressed interest in joining. 219
