© TASS/Michael Metzel

The West has been frantically preparing to disrupt the upcoming BRICS summit in South Africa due on August 22-24, and undermine positions of its participants. The momentous decisions to be reached by the latter remind of the Kashchei's needle, a fairytale artifact able to kill an immortal guy if found and broken. The needle is USD global dominance, and its elimination or major use reduction in world affairs will help do away with Koshchei…

Thus, the BRICS summit (comprising Brazil, India, Russia, China and South Africa) may witness historic commitments, including the accession of nearly 40 Global South countries (invited to the summit are 69 states except for the US, France, UK and other G7 members, the host side reports). And, more importantly, a bloc’s own trading currency may be agreed upon. This caused an extremely pained reaction with G7, or rather it financial and political circles, making them twitch nervously to harm the BRICS to the greatest possible extent.

Since the Japanese-hosted G7 summit in May 2023, we have seen increasingly intense attempts by the collective West to undermine the unity of BRICS — they pit China against India, Brazil against all the others, and everyone against Russia, as well as press South African leaders into “being very quiet.” Focused efforts are underway along each of the paths, and they do stick out a mile. The Chinese Global Times newspaper writes in this regard: "With the imminent BRICS summit focusing on member expansion, the West, especially the US, is attempting to draw India to its side while making a fuss about China-India conflicts and downplaying the future of BRICS <…> Reuters reported that «Brazil has resisted gathering momentum in the BRICS group of major emerging economies to add more member countries» and that «India has reservations about the expansion.» But the next day, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva expressed support for more countries joining the BRICS group. Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denied on Thursday reports that the country was against expanding the BRICS organization." And these are informational provocations alone.

In an all-out effort, Western agents seek to interfere with the Global South sentiment and block its expanding partnership with BRICS. Perhaps they are too late, as dozens of the most viable economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America rush to join in. A few weeks before the summit, 23 countries have officially applied for membership, with another 22 going to take the cue.

The same purpose drove the Americans to arrange the recent meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia — as a platform to brainwash the Global South during face-to-face personal contacts, which National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland did along with EU and British officials. And the Ukrainian crisis itself has become a mere legal "shield" for convening a meeting — otherwise no one would have risen to Washington's call to talk privately. Germany’s Welt TV channel thus highlighted the essence and root cause for convening that meeting: "At least 40 countries sat down to talk in Jeddah. Among those were Russia’s key allies and partners: China, Saudi Arabia, and, of course, India, which is still supportive of Moscow." But it all ended in a puff, without even a minor joint document. Why? Because it was not "about Ukraine" but about winning over the Global South through promises and threats by the collective West…

Note the busy Beijing travelling schedule of the US leadership since May 2023: Kissinger, Treasury head Yellen, State Secretary Blinken have all visited China; Maidan cookie distributor Nuland has rushed to South Africa, and then to Niger that is willing to “get into Russia’s fold”. Macron was toading to the Prime Minister of India after his royal reception in Washington (a one-off event given the State Department’s protocol); and Brussels bureaucrats persistently set up participants in the EU–CELAC summit against Moscow, though inefficiently, as the Latin Americans refused to sign the final communique because of its excessively politicized and biased text. Even Mr. Davos Klaus Schwab arranged a venue in Beijing. Everyone stood up as if on cue and embarked on pressing the BRICS member states.

The EU’s Hiroshima summit follow-up statement reads as follows: "This year's summit took place at a time where the multilateral rules-based global order is being challenged, in particular by Russia and China, and strategic relations around the world are being redefined <…> From an economic perspective, Brazil, the Russian Federation, India, China and South Africa (the 'BRICS' countries) represent more than a quarter of global gross domestic product (GDP), and 42 % of the world's population. Moreover, the rise of alternative international forums, such as the G20, has led some experts to question the G7's relevance (!)".

Having assessed and weighed this threat, the Westerners rushed to the BRICS capitals with persuasions and exhortations mentioned above. Besides, they have been actively exploiting the "Ukrainian case" as a pretext for convening multilateral consultations actually aimed to wreak havoc with BRICS itself and its new supporters. Thus, June 25 saw Copenhagen bring together national security advisers and political aides from Brazil, Great Britain, Denmark, the EU, Italy, India, Canada, Germany, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, the USA, Turkey, Ukraine, France, and Japan. European media claim that they gathered to win over the BRICS member states undecided about Ukraine, while glancing at Moscow and wondering if it would fly off the handle and bring a nervous accusation against its bloc partners? Famous last words! Russia didn't lose it and took these endeavors by Washington and its minions attentively, though composedly and even somewhat sarcastically.

The West is direly in need of discrediting the program for introducing a new trade currency or steamrolling its long-term postponement. Yes, the United States wants to protect the " Koshchei’s needle" in the first place amid the looming dollar waiver by half of the world economy. After all, the US financial authorities have been aware of all the USD transactions (which is the lion's share internationally) to easily control everything concerning greenback payments. And it's just as cool as Big Brother control.

BRICS is "increasingly described as a counterweight to the existing Western-run multilateral institutions," a Bloomberg piece says, but "in fact, it’s nothing of the sort and may never be". The United States has always considered any country or institution with a different economic and political system, including the BRICS, a challenge to its hegemony. Which makes Washington ready to undermine any plans by its rival competitors. The 21st century question is whether the West really has enough tenacity to do that.

On the other hand, "resistance in the Global South to the historical hegemony of the West is growing <...> The Global South would want to maintain productive ties with the West, but that does not mean subscribing to its agenda on Russia," writes Kanwal Sibal, a former Indian foreign minister and former ambassador to Russia. “The Global South, with the experience of Western colonialism, is fully aware of the several instances where the West has violated the UN Charter and the sovereignty of other countries <...> The moral argument of the West on Russia’s actions in Ukraine therefore makes little impression. The West is frustrated with its failure to obtain the support of developing countries for its position on the Ukraine conflict."

And this rift between the Global South and the collective West has been the scariest thing to both Washington and Europe. If you consider Russia an existential political and military adversary of the West, the Global South is deemed as its "breadwinner", whose resources the well-fed Westerners have long derived through direct colonial plunder or dirt-cheap purchases of minerals (France was paying Niger $11 per kilo of uranium, with its actual cost being $200). And this system is about to collapse, burying the well-being of former colonialists, who are all but beggars if deprived of external financial or resource support.