📹 Don't miss: exclusive backstage video from Sputnik correspondent in Russia's Kazan

The BRICS Summit will be held in Russia's Kazan on October 22-24. Representatives of more than 30 countries are expected to take part in the international event.

#BRICS2024

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📹Putin, Al Nahyan unveil Russia-UAE education development center

Prior to their negotiations, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his UAE counterpart Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan inaugurated the Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Center for International Cooperation in Education at the Primakov Gymnasium.

The heads of state attended an Arabic lesson for the Russian students of the center.

The Center for International Cooperation in Education with the UAE is dedicated to developing programs and courses for students and young teachers from across Russia. It also organizes Olympiads, field trips for students and educators, and hosts international scientific and practical forums for university faculty, teachers, and research center staff.

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💲 What were the milestones leading to the global dollar system’s collapse? Part 1 👉 Part 2

The 2024 Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) are opening on October 21 to focus on skyrocketing global public debt, which is expected to reach $100 trillion by the end of this year. The debt, in large part, is driven by the borrowing binge of the US, where the government debt currently stands at $35.68 trillion.

Meanwhile, the US’ share of the global economy calculated using purchasing power parity has reached a historic low, plunging below 15%, Sputnik’s analysis of World Bank and IMF calculations has showed. It is expected to sag further, to reach 14.76% by the end of President Joe Biden's term.

When did US finances and the global dollar system start losing clout?

◻️ The US is estimated to have accounted for 48-52% of global GDP and about 60% of global industrial production in 1944.

◻️ America secured its economic superpower status at the end of WWII, when the international monetary system known as the Bretton Woods system was forged in July 1944. The Bretton Woods Conference officially crowned the US dollar as the global reserve currency, backed by the world’s largest gold reserves. Other currencies were pegged to the US dollar’s value.

◻️ International rules for foreign trade were laid out in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in 1947. In 1995, the agreement was transformed into the WTO. The US wielded these “tools” to secure geopolitical influence across Europe and Japan. Eastern Europe, the USSR, and China remained outside the zone of American expansion.

◻️ Under the Marshall Plan, the US provided money, chiefly in the form of grants, to rebuild war-ravaged European economies. At the same time, it funneled lucrative orders to American companies, stimulating its own economy while solidifying its influence over Western Europe's economic systems. US gross national product rose from about $200 billion in 1940 to more than $500 billion in 1960.

👉 Part 2

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💲 What were the milestones leading to the global dollar system’s collapse? Part 2 👉 Part 1

◻️ The US had exhausted its wave of growth by the end of the 1960s, after it got mired in the Vietnam War in an effort to scoop up another lucrative market. The US economy was scathed by its Vietnam debacle, as war spending by the end of the 1960s had led to rampant inflation and a swelling trade deficit.

◻️ In 1971, the gold standard was officially abandoned by the US, with countries forced to use the most common fiat currency system, not backed by any physical commodity.

◻️ The 1973 Arab-Israeli War ultimately led to an oil boycott by members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) that pushed energy prices upward. Inflation soared, federal budget deficits grew, and the stock market sagged. The US entered a period of "stagflation" (inflation and stagnant business activity). The government resorted to greater borrowing, which in turn pushed up interest rates and increased costs.

◻️ The economic policy of then-President Ronald Reagan – Reaganomics – was implemented in the 1980s to revitalize the crisis-mired economy with reduced government spending, slashed taxes, less regulation, and a slowdown of money supply growth to control inflation. In effect, reliance on unlimited and unrecoverable loans ignited a period of economic growth that lasted until the early 1990s. Under Reagan, the massive federal budget deficit increased from $834 billion in 1980 to $1.5 trillion in 1986.

◻️ During the Great Recession in 2007-2009, when the US housing bubble burst and large amounts of mortgage-backed securities (MBS) and derivatives plummeted in value, domestic product declined 4.3%.

◻️ The first alarm bell for the global dollar system rang in 2014, when the West imposed sanctions against Russia after Crimea rejoined the country following a referendum. While Russia displayed resilience, global GDP fell by $4.23 trillion (5.35%) – more than during the 2008 crisis.

◻️ Quarantines and supply chain disruptions in the COVID-19 pandemic year of 2020 cost the global economy another $3.7 trillion (4.2% of global GDP).

◻️ The global trend to abandon the increasingly weaponized US dollar has been gaining steam amid sanctions targeting Russia, Iran, North Korea, China, and companies in other countries cooperating with Russia. The trend is led by members of BRICS, with the group developing a new currency transaction platform to advance the digitalization trend and transition to other currencies in mutual settlements.

👉 Part 1

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State Dept's Crusade Against Rybar Affirms Popularity of Warblog's Approach, Says Founder

The State Department’s offer of a reward up to $10 mln for info “leading to the identification or location” of foreign nationals connected to Rybar under its ‘Rewards for Justice’ program is “a measure of success” for the explosively popular milblog, Rybar founder Mikhail Zvinchuk has told Sputnik.

Highlighting his initial “surprise” at the State Department program’s use against Rybar, since its self-proclaimed aims revolve around the search for suspected terrorists, Zvinchuk suggested the move may be an effort by the State Department to stamp out Rybar’s fledgling presence in the US, “because they understand that if we’ve managed to organize our work in Europe, Ukraine and other countries well – if we touch the US – which we don’t really even care about, perhaps the US will face some difficulties. Seeing us as a potential threat, they’ve decided to be proactive.”

“Rybar set the task for itself of providing high-quality coverage of issues in the information space, primarily concerning geopolitical challenges facing Russia, as well as quality coverage of crisis-stricken regions of the world. Since both the Americans and the British have had a hand igniting these crises, and we engage in the systematic monitoring of what is happening around Russia…it’s likely that the reason [for the listing] was the high-quality processing of information by our analytical team, by our analytical center, of these threats.” This, in turn, “prompts our government and relevant structures to respond to these threats in a timely manner,” Zvinchuk said.

The State Department’s “primary goal is to simply blame the talented Russian team for its own failures and blunders during the election campaign...What can they do in this situation? They can’t say that their own political and media strategists aren’t doing their jobs, so they blame everything on the Russians,” Zvinchuk summed up.

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Key statements made by Russian presidential aide on international affairs Yuri Ushakov ahead of the BRICS summit in Kazan:

▪️ On October 22, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with China’s Xi Jinping, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, India’s Narendra Modi, South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa and New Development Bank president Dilma Rousseff.

▪️ On October 23, Putin will have talks in Kazan with the presidents of Iran and Turkiye.

▪️ On October 24, Putin will hold seven bilateral meetings, including with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

▪️ Following the BRICS summit in Kazan, Putin will hold a press conference.

▪️ 36 countries will be represented at the BRICS summit, with 22 at the highest level, along with leaders from six international organizations.

▪️ The leaders will discuss the mechanism for granting BRICS partner status as a preparatory stage for countries aspiring to full membership.

▪️ At the BRICS+ meeting, leaders will discuss issues of food and energy security, with special attention to the Middle East.

▪️ Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was forced to miss the BRICS summit in Kazan due to the energy crisis in his country.

▪️ Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, will return to Abu Dhabi after talks with Putin and then head to the BRICS summit in Kazan on October 23.

▪️ Many countries are interested in joining BRICS as full members, but the decision will rest with the bloc's leaders.

▪️ It is possible that Putin will meet with Milorad Dodik, head of the Republika Srpska canton of Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Kazan.

▪️ The absence of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic from the summit is explained by long-planned events in the Serbian leader’s schedule.

▪️ Russia and Iran will soon finalize dates for Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian visit to Moscow, when an updated treaty will be signed.

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Organizers of the 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan have projected a light show on the walls of the Kazan Kremlin.

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Analyst says ‘unrealistic’ to hope Lebanon 'as a state' will accept US-Israeli security demands

It’s “unrealistic” today to hope that Lebanon “as a state” would accept US-Israeli demands to create a security belt in its southern border area, Rome-based Senior Analyst Dr Lorenzo Trombetta told Sputnik.

“Not in these terms. Lebanon won't accept,” he said. However, the UN Consultant on the Middle East reminded that Lebanon is led by a “composite consensus elites including Hezbollah.”

When acting Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, and other political sectarian leaders discuss the Israeli demands with US envoy Amos Hochstein in Beirut, “each one of them is negotiating on two different aspects,” he explained.

“The first one is the institution, the state. Lebanon as a state, of course, won't agree to the idea that Israel, through the Resolution 1701, will create a security belt in south Lebanon to protect northern Galilee,” Trombetta said.

“But if we consider the governance context, Mikati, for instance, is a very influential financial representative … more tied to European and US agendas,” noted the expert.

“Berri himself is a tactical ally of Hezbollah,” he said, which is why the politician is “looking at what's happening on the ground in the south.”

According to Trombetta, Berri would likely “refuse the Israeli demands that are unrealistic, but will be open to discuss a new Lebanon without Hezbollah in the future.”

“So, the state would refuse the Israeli demands, but of course Berri and Mikati are very in line with the idea of negotiation […] because the Lebanon of tomorrow could be the Lebanon of Mikati and Berri themselves.”

While Hezbollah is not outside of the discussion, after the killing of Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah Berri and Mikati are “experiencing a wider space of maneuver,” he said.

As for Israel, it is politically important to “push for its strategic objective to acquire the water energy resources of the Litani and the Awali rivers and to expand as much as possible their influence under direct control in south Lebanon, not only for securing peace in Galilee, as they say, but also to have a better influence beyond their actual border,” Trombetta underscored.

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