Authored by RFE/RL Staff via OilPrice.com,

• Putin is using the BRICS summit to project strength and counter Western isolation, while also pushing for initiatives like an alternative payment system and grain exchange.

• BRICS members are divided on their approach to the West, with some seeking to reform the current international order and others aiming to dismantle it.

• Despite its growing economic influence, BRICS faces internal challenges and a mixed track record in achieving its goals.

As Russian President Vladimir Putin hosts leaders for the 16th annual BRICS summit, he’s determined to show the West that he still has important allies by his side after nearly three years of attempts to isolate Russia for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

But while Putin is getting the optics he wants, what kind of an organization is BRICS actually growing into?

Finding Perspective: 

The summit in Kazan, which began on October 22 and will run until October 24, is the first meeting for the group since Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates joined past members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

Putin is looking to use BRICS, or BRICS+ as the expanded format is sometimes termed, to signal that Russia has plenty of influential friends, despite its pariah status in the West.

The summit is intended to showcase the group’s collective economic might and also entice new countries into a coalition that Moscow and Beijing hope will help form a new world order not dominated by the West.

In Kazan, Putin is expected to push negotiations to build an alternative platform for international payments that would be immune to Western sanctions.

Russia, the world’s top wheat exporter, will also propose the creation of a BRICS grain-trading exchange as an alternative to Western markets where international prices for agricultural commodities are set.

But not all BRICS members completely align with the anti-Western stance coming from Beijing and Moscow and this divide could come out in Kazan.

The Balancing Act: 

While all BRICS members may be united in the “belief that the current structures that govern the international order and the global economy are unfairly weighted toward the Western world,” Stewart Patrick, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told me, there is a division between China, Iran, and Russia, which want to unseat the current order, and others who want to reform it.

Many BRICS members, like Brazil and India, still work closely with the United States and other countries in the West, even as they seek to gain more global leverage.

For many of the new members, with the exception of Iran — and also for many that have applied to join recently — BRICS holds mostly economic appeal.

Members and would-be members alike are also looking for alternative sources of financing than available from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), and are looking to gain better access to burgeoning markets that could better define the global economy in the coming decades.

Why It Matters: 

Beyond the financial appeal of the bloc, many countries also view BRICS as a form of geopolitical insurance.

And that hedge is even more relevant given added unpredictability brought to the United States in recent years.

Still, the divisions within BRICS — and the bloc’s so far thin track record in delivering on its initiatives — could continue to hold it back.

China, Iran, and Russia represent a group within BRICS that are grappling to varying degrees with U.S. sanctions and fighting different types of proxy battles with the United States around the world.

Others, like Egypt, are leading recipients of U.S. military aid or like the United Arab Emirates, host U.S. military bases.

Adding to those difficulties in articulating what a shared vision for the BRICS would look like, China and India have difficult relations, while there is little warmth to be found between Arab states and Iran.

Everybody said no one would want to wind up back in Florida after it was ravaged by two hurricanes this month…and once again, it looks like “everyone” is wrong.

Such was the conclusion of a recent Bloomberg article which detailed “one of the largest real estate brokerages in Boca Grande, a village on Florida’s Gasparilla Island” which has seen immediate demand following the storms. 

“We’re already having people calling, investors, some bottom fishers, saying, ‘I will buy anything in cash and close in two weeks,’” brokerage founder Michael Saunders told Bloomberg. 

He added: “People’s memories are short when it comes to the disastrous things that come with a storm. They forget and are right back demanding beach front houses.”

Milton was the third hurricane to hit the island in two years, the report notes. In 2022, Ian flooded streets and damaged roofs. Helene followed this September, surging through dunes and mangroves, leaving two feet of water in Boca Grande’s shops.

Just ten days later, Milton struck again, flooding luxury homes, condos, and downtown businesses still recovering from Helene. It knocked out power and water, tore up banyan-lined roads, and left sand drifts around the Gasparilla Inn, a favorite of the Bush presidential family.

The Bloomberg article says that Boca Grande, long associated with old money, saw property values soar during the pandemic, with median home prices more than doubling to $4 million since 2019, per Redfin. However, home sales have recently dropped to a quarter of their 2021 peak, mirroring a 30% decline statewide.

After Hurricane Milton, Lee County Sheriff Carmine Marceno flew in by helicopter, offering what he called a “concierge-level” response. Crews quickly cleared five-foot sand drifts, allowing workers to restore power, repair roads, and dig out luxury homes.

Marceno said: “People needed to know we are here. Our mission was to get this place open, so people could come back to check their property.”

Glenn Scarpa, owner of restaurant Scarpa’s Coastal, said he’s tired of rebuilding. Milton flooded his restaurant with over three feet of water, hitting before it even dried out from Helene.

He said: “The boo-hoo period is over, and now I just have to focus on rebuilding my life — again. What more can I do?”

Down the beach, Milton ended the short-lived revival of South Beach Bar & Grille, which had reopened only weeks after being destroyed by Hurricane Ian. The storm shattered windows, eroded sand, and cracked the foundation. Co-owner Marco Meola fought back tears as he surveyed the damage.

Meola said: “Hurricane Ian was really devastating, an emotional roller coaster that took a lot of toll on us, and now this. We feel like if we can survive that, we can come back from this.”