The document titled “Russia in the BRICS group. Strategic goals and they ways to attain them” was submitted to the Kommersant daily. The document will lay the groundwork for a complex program to use Russia’s participation in the BRICS group to speed up economic development and build up international and political positions of the country. The Russian government is drafting the document. The document holds that Russia considers the BRICS group as an alternative centre of influence in the post-crisis world instead of the West losing its positions.
The Russian National Committee for BRICS Studies has drafted the 133-page document, which was transmitted in the Kommersant daily. The committee was formed in 2011 under the decree of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. First deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee for International Affairs Vyacheslav Nikonov is the chairman of the foresaid committee. The committee included representatives of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the foundation Russky Mir, PIR-Centre and several other organizations.
The drafted document is timed to a BRICS summit, which is due in the South African city Durban on March 26-27. The leaders of the countries that are brought together in this union of states, particularly Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will participate in the BRICS summit.
The authors of the document noted that alternative centres of influence are needed in the world policy and economy. “The hopes that the Western world will be able to find internal reserves and will establish a stable world order on its own are becoming weaker,” they said.
The document holds that each BRICS state has its strong positions. China – economy, Brazil – the potential of natural resources and ecology, India – a demographic and scientific potential, and South Africa is the gates to Africa. The authors of the document see Russian strength in its political and military power. Meanwhile, each BRICS state pursues its goals. “Russia finds in the BRICS group a much stronger “negotiating potential” and broader opportunities to lobby its interests and initiatives on the international scene,” the document explained.
The BRICS group focused on economic issues now. However, the report noted that it is profitable for Moscow to strengthen the political weight of the country. The top task is to turn from the hegemony of the United States to “a polycentric world order.” Meanwhile, the report pedalled on the idea, which is recently included in almost all Russian foreign political documents that it is impermissible to interfere in the domestic affairs of the countries and to use international institutions (primarily the UN Security Council) for toppling unsuitable authorities in different countries. In the economic sphere Russia and its partners should, according to the authors of the report, seek to reform “the outdated currency financial architecture” and “establish a more democratic and fairer international economic regime.”
Along with the proposals to overcome the disagreements inside the union, the report spelled out the measures to build up its influence. The authors find it necessary to form a BRICS permanent secretariat, at first a virtual secretariat (in the Internet), then a full-format secretariat, a bank of development (with the charter capital of 50 billion dollars with the head office in Moscow), a bank of international settlements between the BRICS states (for the payments in national currencies) and a special anti-crisis fund (240 billion dollars). The BRICS states can solve the security problems together (the struggle against the proliferation of mass destruction weapons, cybercrime, terrorism, drugs and piracy) and ecology. For a stronger “humanitarian and inter-civilization potential” the organization is offered to admit an Islamic country in the union (for instance, Indonesia or Turkey).
However, the authors of the document are convinced that the West will try to hamper to fulfil these plans, as the latter sees the BRICS group as a rival and will do everything to prevent the BRICS states from building up their positions on the world scene.