Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday echoed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's stance on BRICS, emphasising that the grouping is not anti-Western but rather non-Western ahead of the group's summit in October. In interaction with senior journalists from BRICS countries, he highlighted BRICS' unique approach, quoting PM Modi's words, "BRICS is not an anti-Western group; it's just a non-Western group."
Vladimir Putin said he was grateful for the concern expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the war in Ukraine.
Asked at a media interaction whether he saw a role for India in negotiating peace between Russia and Ukraine, he referred to his interactions with Modi, whom he described as a “friend”, and said his country was grateful for this.
Putin said it was difficult to specify a timeline on ending the war, and setting one will be difficult and counterproductive.
He blamed America and NATO for pushing Russia into the war, and said his country will prevail. He added that the Russian army has become one of the most combat effective and high-tech armies in the world, and NATO will get tired of “waging this war against us”.
“We will have the upper hand. We'll win. We'll prevail,” he said through an interpreter to the select group of foreign journalists.
The Russian leader expressed willingness to negotiate peace and accused Ukraine of backing out from earlier efforts. In his remarks a few weeks earlier, Putin had identified India, China and Brazil as the countries with which Russia was in touch to on the issue.
