Advertisement

Supported by

Lydia Polgreen

By Lydia Polgreen

Opinion Columnist

Last week at a lavish global summit in the Russian city of Kazan, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia, once a darling of the West — winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and formerly a staunch ally of the United States — spoke up to heap praise on his host: Vladimir Putin, the bête noire of the rules-based order.

“Allow me to congratulate you on maintaining economic resilience during a difficult period,” Ahmed cooed. “This period was not easy for Russia, but under your leadership you have succeeded to maintain the economic resilience which might be exemplary for most of us.”

This might sound to an untrained ear like the kind of empty flattery typically offered at a talking shop of global leaders. But to me, it was a telling bit of theater that hints at the dangerous crossroads at which a world riven by inequality and beset by endless crises finds itself. It was a glimpse of the world to come and how the shifting balance of global power increasingly eludes the West’s grasp.

Ahmed is an ambitious nation builder who presides over one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. He is also increasingly at odds with the West, and his mention of Russian resilience in the face of very tough sanctions was a not-so-subtle shot across the bow. Should the West seek to contain Ahmed’s aggressive moves in his strategically vital neighborhood, his country has an ally and role model in Putin’s Russia.

Ahmed was speaking at the annual summit of the BRICS nations, the largest gathering of world leaders in Russia since its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The pomp-filled event was meant to project to the West that its attempt at isolating Putin as punishment for his invasion of Ukraine had failed.

Surrounded by the leaders of some three dozen nations, Putin looked like the cat who ate the canary — a man who reportedly has the richest man in the world, Elon Musk, on something close to speed dial and has reportedly had private phone calls with the past and possibly future president of the United States, Donald Trump. The secretary general of the United Nations attended as well, raising eyebrows as he made his first visit to Russia in more than two years. In a news conference at the end of the summit, Putin indulged in some digs at his Western tormentors.

“As you can observe, we continue to live and work normally, and our economy is developing,” he said, trotting out Russia’s growth stats, which the International Monetary Fund says will outstrip other developed economies’ this year. For that he can thank, in no small part, the deals that it has inked with fellow BRICS members, most especially India and China, two of the world’s top three oil importers and a crucial source of trade for Russia in the face of sanctions.

Good luck, Putin seemed to say, with your rules-based order. My friends and I are building a different future.

It was a long way from the first summit of the BRICs, the euphonious acronym coined by Goldman Sachs for the rising beneficiaries and shapers of an increasingly interconnected and globalized world. These powers — Brazil, Russia, India........

© The New York Times