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LOS ANGELES (OC).–Visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization [SCO] in Tianjin, Russian President Vladimir Putin hopes to challenge the West to economic supremacy, creating what he calls a new world order. Joining Putin at the SCO are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan also including India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus. Putin has been irked by the European Union whose leaders have ratcheted up the sanctions to get Putin to end the Ukraine War. President Donald Trump was not mentioned but growing concerns over tariffs have prompted Putin to take new actions to consolidate business ties with his BRICS coalition of economic powers seeking to offset the U.S. and European Union. Putin would like to see the U.S. loose its reserve currency status, citing, its recent slide against most foreign currencies.
Russia and China have traded in their own currencies, avoiding the dollar wherever possible. Putin wants more economic power put into the BRICS bloc including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa bringing in new members like Turkey, Iran, Serbia and Pakistan. Whether Putin makes any progress or not remains unclear. When his own country goes through recession, he looks for the dollar to shore up his sagging currency, the same can be said for other countries currencies that tend to fluctuate or lose more value than the U.S. dollar. Whether or not the dollar has lost value recently doesn’t mean in another cycle it won’t return to its historic supremacy. Attending the SCO conference between Aug. 31 and Sept. 1, Putin hopes to gain more members to the BRICS economic bloc, to offer a viable alterative the U.S. and European Union.
Putin seeks to increase trade with China, something not hard to do since most countries trade with China one way or another. Putin wants to strengthen ties with China and India where he sells copious amounts of petroleum and natural gas. Putin has been reeling for the last three years under the weight to punitive economic sanctions all related to the Ukraine War. With no immediate end in sight, Putin though it was a good thing to recommit economic ties to the BRICS bloc, but, more importantly, to India and China. India and China have no intent to reduce purchases of Russian oil and natural gas. If Putin can find a way out of Ukraine, the Russian economy would boom would economic sanctions lifted from the U.S. and EU. Whatever Russia does with its revenue from oil sales, Putin would rather not use in to waste on the Ukraine War, something he’s explained to Trump.
Whatever happens at the SCO, Putin knows that if he can figure out a way out of Ukraine, he’d be a lot better off financially. Trump told him at the Anchorage, Alaska summit that ending the war would open the door to a return to the G7 and economic mainstream. Putin could return to selling oil and natural gas to the European Union and U.S. What makes no sense at all in the EU’s belligerent attitude toward Russia when the EU bought petroleum and natural gas for years. Putin doesn’t need to expand his BRICS bloc if he finds a way out of Ukraine. Putin should let Trump find a way to work with Zelensky and the EU to find some kind of land swap that works for Russia and, at the same time, saves face with Ukraine, currently embarrassed by its failure in the Ukraine War. Zelensky fears a coup d’etat if Ukrainians find out how much land he’s lost.
Developing more economic ties with South Asian countries and the BRICS bloc only strengthens Russia’s economic position. But by far the best way to regain economic supremacy would be to find a way to end the Ukraine War. Zelensky and the EU have become tough customers finding an acceptable solution for peace. Reporting on the SCO, the Western press sees no correlation between its hostile attitude toward Putin and the necessity of building new economic ties away from the U.S. and EU. Putin’s best path of economic prosperity is not the SCO or BRICS, it’s ending the Ukraine War and returning to the G7 and regular, unrestricted oil and natural gas sales. Coordinating with Trump on a deal to end the Ukraine War would be an efficient way for Putin to end the economic sanctions currently plaguing his economy. BRICS is not the answer to the Russian economy.
Whatever friendly ties China and India have with Russia, Putin must get beyond the harsh economic penalties tied to the Ukraine War. When it comes to ongoing attacks in Ukraine, they would slow down if Zelensky stops striking Russia’s oil infrastructure deep inside the Russian Federation. Zelensky doesn’t acknowledge anything he does to make peace more complicated in Ukraine. Trump said recently that maybe he needs to let Russia and Ukraine worked out their problems without his mediation. Trump would like to help but there’s only so much he can do without cooperation on both sides. Zelensky needs to get real about what it’s going to take to end the three-and-a-half-year conflict. Putin could help himself if he would deescalate the air war that seems to kill too many civilians in Ukraine. Zelensky would help his cause by refraining from striking Russia’s oil infrastructure.
About the Author
John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.
