On the eve of the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, Russia’s representative, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, delivered a message very much akin to that directed to the gathering by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Lavrov wrote in South Africa’s Ubuntu magazine that attempts by the “collective West” to preserve its hegemony actually have boomeranged. Instead the real “World Majority” has been impelled finally to reject, as RT described it, “the exploitation of their resources by foreign states.” Lavrov stated: “Tectonic shifts are taking place in the world today.… We are witnessing the emergence of a more just multipolar world order.” Lavrov said that the BRICS functions as a “positive force that can strengthen the solidarity of the Global South and Global East and become one of the pillars of a new, more just polycentric world order.”
By Lavrov’s account, “The unconditional priorities include strengthening the potential of the New Development Bank and the BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement, improving payment mechanisms, and increasing the role of national currencies in mutual settlements. It is planned to focus on these issues at the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg.” Lavrov provided a pungent explanation: “The international community is tired of the blackmail and pressure from the Western elites and their colonial and racist manners. That is why, for example, not only Russia, but also a number of other countries are consistently reducing their dependence on the U.S. dollar, switching to alternative payment systems and national currency settlements.”
