Russia's Putin presides over the closing session of the Kazan Brics summit

RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin today presided at the closing session of a summit of the Brics bloc, praising its role as a counterbalance to what he called the West’s “perverse methods.”
The three-day summit in the city of Kazan covered the deepening of financial co-operation, including the development of alternatives to Western-dominated payment systems, efforts to settle regional conflicts and the expansion of the Brics group of nations.
The alliance that initially included Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa when it was founded in 2009 has expanded to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.
More from this author

ROGER McKENZIE looks back 60 years to the assassination of Malcolm X, whose message that black people have worth resonated so strongly with him growing up in Walsall in the 1980s

ROGER McKENZIE welcomes an important contribution to the history of Africa, telling the story in its own right rather than in relation to Europeans
Similar stories

Thirty-six countries, representing over half of the global population, gathered in Russia to discuss a new financial and economic infrastructure for the world. The potential impact could be immense in the long run, writes MARC VANDEPITTE