🎥🎥 BRICS SUMMIT - DAY 1

👉Watch the livestream here or follow the link to Sputnik's website

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣At a meeting with Dilma Rousseff, head of the BRICS New Development Bank, Russian President Vladimir Putin praised the institution as a promising and effective financial entity. Since 2018, the bank has financed projects totaling $33 billion.

"Since 2018, I think 100 projects have been financed for a total of $33 billion," Putin said.

Putin emphasized that increasing the use of BRICS national currencies for settlements will help reduce geopolitical risks and strengthen the economic resilience of member states.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️Russian forces have liberated the settlement of Novosadovoye in the Donetsk People's Republic, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Assange’s father: ‘We make ourselves the example for others to join us and move forward’

WikiLeaks Party founder John Shipton, father of recently-freed journalist Julian Assange, has mapped out the path to a new age of freedom of speech.

“We can start work right now, on such reevaluation of values, and speak frankly to each other about subjects that concern us, and consequently this will ascend to a renewal that you desire,” Shipton told Sputnik.

“We make ourselves the example for others to join us and move forward, to ascend to a place where we become knowledgeable,” he added.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi arrives in Kazan to attend the BRICS summit

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹Vladimir Putin welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Kazan at the BRICS Summit

However, when Modi's interpreter began translating his greeting, Putin smiled and said, "Our relationship is so strong, I thought you understood everything without translation."

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇮🇳During a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit in Kazan, Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted the special privileged strategic partnership between Russia and India.

Putin emphasized the importance of cooperation with India within the BRICS framework, underscoring the strong ties between the two nations and their collaboration on key global issues.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Journalists are watching the speeches of Vladimir Putin and Narendra Modi in the press center on the sidelines of the BRICS 2024 summit in Kazan, Russia.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️The Prime Minister of Iraq, Mohammed Shia' Al Sudani, announced the elimination of the leader of ISIS* in the country, along with eight other high-ranking commanders of the group.

*a terrorist organization banned in Russia

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣The conflict between Russia and Ukraine must be resolved peacefully, and India is ready to provide all the possible assistance to this, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday.

"We are in regular contact regarding the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. As I have said before, we believe that problems should be resolved peacefully and we fully support the prompt restoration of peace and stability," Modi said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Russia's Kazan on the sidelines of the BRICS summit.

"In all our efforts, we give priority to humanity, and we are ready to provide any possible assistance in the future," Modi stated.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

F-35’s ascent and nosedive: Costliest US warplane project hits fresh turbulence
 
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fifth-gen supersonic stealth strike fighter just can’t seem to catch a break, with a report released Monday by the Government Accountability Office finding the jet woefully below mission-ready status for six straight years—i.e., every year that the Congressional watchdog has conducted its reviews.
 
The GAO blamed the readiness shortfall on “challenges with depot and organizational maintenance” and overreliance on contractors who essentially hold the Pentagon hostage with astronomical sustainment costs (which jumped from $1.1 trillion in FY2018 to $1.58 trillion in FY2023). The Navy and Air Force are set to take control of sustainment to get a grip on the situation, but not until FY2027.
 
◻️ The GAO estimates that only about 55% of the F-35’s three variants are mission-ready at any given time, with mission readiness requiring the ability to “fly and perform at least one mission.” 

◻️ With a per-unit cost of nearly $100M and a projected lifetime cost of over $2T, the F-35 program is by far the most expensive military project in history. 

◻️ Lockheed proceeded with the F-35’s development by taking cues from the Yak-43/141 VTOL jet—a Soviet carrier strike aircraft project scrapped in 1991. The X-35 first flew in 2000, and the F-35A in 2006. 

◻️ But the F-35’s makers have proven unable to work out all the kinks in the plane, with the GAO issuing report after report citing hundreds of flaws, including mission-critical defects that could injure or kill pilots or otherwise jeopardize the aircraft’s safety. 

◻️ These problems range from faulty landing gear and vibrating fuel tubes to fragile electro-optical targeting equipment, canopy delamination issues and weather sensitivity, engine heat issues adding to wear and tear, cabin overpressurization, night vision problems, corrosion, radar reset issues, ejection seats that can snap pilots’ necks, and the inability to fly in lightning.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

📹 Watch world leaders savor traditional Tatar cuisine – chak-chak and salted karavai – upon their arrival in Kazan for the BRICS Summit.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇿🇦 The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, stated that the BRICS Summit will address issues of peace, security, and trade.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇿🇦Russia's relations with South Africa are based on the principles of partnership and equality, Vladimir Putin said in talks with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Putin stated that Russia and South Africa are in favour of a just world order on the world arena.

"Russia has been building its work during its presidency of the BRICS taking into account the results of the summit in South Africa", Putin said.

"Trade between Russia and South Africa grew by 3% in 8 months, countries have a lot to work on," Russian President added.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

❗️❗️❗️The Israeli army struck a residential building in the Tayyoun district of southern Beirut as Mohammad Afif, Hezbollah's media communications manager, was holding a press conference nearby.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

⚡️The Houthis claimed to have attacked an Israeli military base east of Tel Aviv with a Palestine-2 hypersonic missile.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🌍🌍🌍 Western media jealously eye Russia as it hosts BRICS summit

As Western leaders feign disinterest in the BRICS bloc’s Summit in Kazan, their media are keeping a close eye on the event, with headlines betraying recognition that the US and NATO’s attempts to sanction and bully Russia into submission haven’t worked.

◻️ ‘Putin gathers allies to show West’s pressure isn’t working’, the BBC wrote in a wistful piece on the forum, highlighting the fact that the BRICS now accounts for almost half of the world’s population and a third of its economy.

◻️ ‘Putin’s plan to defeat the dollar’ was The Economist’s take on the gathering, with its piece highlighting the BRICS’ entry into the global payment systems race, and a Russia-led effort to reduce the dollar’s influence in international settlements.

◻️ ‘Hosting BRICS Summit of World Leaders, Russia Shows West That It’s Not Isolated’ was Time’s approach to the Kazan Summit, referencing attendance by leaders and senior officials from three dozen countries, plus UN chief Antonio Guterres.

◻️ ‘Putin Brings Together Economies He Hopes Will Eclipse the West’, the New York Times wrote in an analysis focusing on Moscow’s efforts to use the BRICS as a critical “counterweight to the West” and show them that Russia’s president “has important allies on his side.”

◻️ ‘Putin hosts a summit to show the West it can’t keep Russia off the global stage’, the Washington Post wrote in its own piece.

◻️ ‘BRICS summit: Putin hosts Xi and Modi in power play with West’, The Times wrote in a piece highlighting the Kremlin’s purported efforts “to strengthen its anti-Western alliance.”

◻️ ‘The West wants Putin isolated. A major summit he’s hosting shows he’s far from alone’, CNN wrote, touting the Kazan meeting as “by far the largest international gathering” hosted by Putin since the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis in 2022.

◻️ ‘Putin hosts Global South leaders at BRICS summit meant to counterbalance Western clout’, the Associated Press wrote, calling the three-day meeting “a powerful way to demonstrate the failure of US-led efforts to isolate Russia over its actions in Ukraine.”

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🌍🌍🌍 How does BRICS differ from other international organizations and what has it achieved in 18 years?

Russia’s city of Kazan is hosting the 16th BRICS Summit, with leaders from 36 countries, including 22 heads of state or government, attending the three-day event. In light of the gathering, it's worth considering how BRICS differs from other international organizations.

🔹 BRICS was founded in 2006 by Brazil, Russia, India, and China, with South Africa joining in 2011. On January 1, 2024, Egypt, Iran, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Ethiopia became full members, while Russia assumed the BRICS presidency.

🔹 BRICS began engaging with third-party countries in the early 2010s through the “BRICS Plus/Outreach” format. Around 40 countries are interested in cooperating with the group in various ways.

🔹 BRICS is a "club of like-minded" members, not a bloc like NATO or the EU, and lacks a charter, budget, secretariat, and supranational structures.

What has BRICS achieved?

🔸 The expanded BRICS represents about 45% of the world’s population (~3.6 billion people) and a combined nominal GDP of $28.5 trillion (IMF, 2023).

🔸 BRICS now accounts for 36% of global GDP (PPP), surpassing the G7's 29.3% and the EU's 14.5%.

🔸 BRICS' 2024 growth is forecast at 4%, versus 1.7% for the G7 and 3.2% globally, Putin said at the BRICS Business Forum.

🔸 The BRICS bloc holds $45 trillion in investable wealth, according to the January 2024 BRICS Wealth Report.

🔸 BRICS nations collectively account for 45% of global crude oil production.

🔸 BRICS countries hold over 20% of global gold reserves, led by Russia (2,340 tons) and China (2,260 tons), according to Sputnik's calculations using World Gold Council data.

🔸 BRICS accounts for 25% of global exports. In 2023, Russia's trade reached $228 billion with China, $57 billion with India, and $13 billion with Brazil and South Africa.

🔸 BRICS founded the New Development Bank (NDB) in 2014 to fund infrastructure and sustainable development projects in member states and emerging markets. The NDB's authorized capital is $100 billion.

🔸 Since 2016, the NDB has invested in 138 projects across China, India, Brazil, Russia, South Africa, Bangladesh, and Egypt, according to its website.

🔸 Amid Western sanctions, around 65% of settlements between Russia and BRICS partners now use national currencies.

What is BRICS working on?

🔹 BRICS is developing tools for an inclusive financial system, including a common unit of account (Unit), multilateral settlement platform (BRICS Bridge), blockchain payment system (BRICS Pay), settlement depository (BRICS Clear), insurance system, and independent rating agency.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣No reason to doubt Georgia's words that West was pushing it into war with Russia - Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday that there are no reasons not to trust Georgian politicians' statements that the West was pushing Tbilisi into a war with Russia.

"I see no reason not to believe them. They cite dialogues with Western countries that directly instructed them to take military action against Russia. I have no reason not to trust them," Lavrov told Russian media.

Earlier in the day, Bidzina Ivanishvili, the founder and honorary chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party, said that a high-ranking Western official had proposed that Georgia declare war against Russia and hold out for at least a few days before switching to guerrilla warfare with the West's backing.

◻️ On the night of August 8, 2008, Georgia shelled the Republic of South Ossetia using "Grad" multiple launch rocket systems. Georgian forces attacked the republic and heavily destroyed its capital, the city of Tskhinvali.

◻️ Russia, defending the residents of South Ossetia, many of whom had acquired Russian citizenship, sent troops into the republic and, after five days of hostilities, drove the Georgian military out.

◻️ On August 26 of the same year, Moscow recognized the sovereignty of South Ossetia and another former Georgian autonomy, Abkhazia.

◻️ Russia has repeatedly stated that this recognition reflects existing realities and is not subject to revision.

◻️ Meanwhile, Georgia still does not recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia, considering them its regions.

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🇷🇺🇨🇳Russian-Chinese relations have become a model of how relations in the world should be built, Putin said in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping

Putin congratulated the friendly Chinese people on the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt

🗣Chinese President Xi Jinping calls BRICS a system-forming factor in formation of multipolarity

#BRICS2024

📌Subscribe to @SputnikInt