SPECIAL ENVOY TO RIO - Russian President Vladimir Putin delivered a remote address at the BRICS Summit in Rio, live from Moscow via video conference. He also attended other speeches.

However, the Brazilian government decided not to broadcast live publicly the speech by Putin and the other heads of state, government and delegations present in Rio for the BRICS.

It was up to the Kremlin to release Putin's speech, which he gave in Rio as a response to Lula's speech, also via video, last year. The PT member was unable to travel to Russia due to medical restrictions, after having suffered a fall at the Alvorada Palace.

The government's decision was to restrict access to the speeches to delegations only, repeating what happened at the G-20 last November. This group, however, has many more rivalries and disagreements than the BRICS.

The practice at BRICS was different: broadcasting the speeches of all leaders directly, as occurred in Kazan 2024 and Johannesburg 2023.

Putin decided not to come to Rio due to the risk of being arrested, as required by the International Criminal Court, which accuses him of war crimes in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said the Brazilian government had not given him security guarantees and acknowledged that the arrest warrant was an impediment.

In practice, although President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has already said publicly that Putin would not be arrested in the country during an official visit, the decision could be made by a first instance federal judge.

National currencies

The Kremlin later released Putin's speech in written form, which was broadcast by outlets linked to Russian state media.

According to Putin, BRICS is advancing a “unifying agenda” with the expansion of its membership, a process that Moscow advocates expanding, unlike Brazil.

In response to sanctions, he advocated “further expanding the use of national currencies in mutual settlements” among BRICS member countries. He said the creation of an independent platform and settlement and deposit system would enable faster, more efficient and safer currency transactions.

“The use of national currencies in trade between our states is constant and growing: in 2024, the share of our national currency, the ruble, and the currencies of friendly countries in Russia's settlements with other BRICS countries will amount to 90%,” the Russian president said.