The rise of BRICS and the historic opportunities missed by Greece

With the beginning of the new year comes BRICS continues unabated, and the historic opportunity missed by Greece in 2015 now weighs down the Greek political system, which has failed to understand it.

Yesterday, Saudi Arabia officially joined the BRICS group of countries, as reported by the country’s state television. Now BRICS turned into BRICS and is the most powerful energy group of states on the planet. Along with North Arabia, four more countries have joined BRICS: the UAE (also an energy-rich country), Ethiopia (with great geostrategic weight in Africa), Iran (rich in energy resources, with a strong military and a large scientific staff, and this is in key parts of the world , such as the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf), as well as Egypt (possibly the most powerful military country in Africa and controls the Strait of Suez).

This is a great success for Vladimir Putin, the initiator of the creation of BRICS 20 years ago. Now BRICS is the largest economic “bloc” on the planet, which includes half of the planet’s population. At the same time, its expansion does not stop, but continues.

But we need to clarify what we mean when we talk about an economic “bloc.” If you look closely at the countries, both those included in this organization and those that have applied for membership, you can understand that they are all rich in some area. Whether it is energy and raw materials, like Russia, or energy deposits, like Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, or rare earth resources, like China – all this implies economic prosperity and real geopolitical and geostrategic power. This happens because the economic facts of the “bloc” will correspond to reality.

On the contrary, the Western ones based on financial games are not real economic data, and that is why at the moment the US is on the verge of economic collapse (every three months they extend the debt limit) and Europe is completely “naked” in terms of energy and raw materials.

This “block” will be able to create its own currency and completely exclude the US dollar from transactions between them. Even Argentina, which ultimately refused to join BRICS due to the US-friendly newly elected President H. Millay, will sooner or later join this organization because it is a food superpower.

In short, BRICS is a “bloc” with enormous potential, unlike the West, which has shown no potential for decades. Countries that want to join BRICS such as Algeria, Bolivia, Venezuela, etc. will provide additional reserves of energy deposits, rare earths, etc. Note that whoever controls the production and distribution of rare earth metals also controls … renewable energy and new industries such as electric vehicles.

So, the Greek government of A. Tsipras (which historically turned out to be very small) chose to reject this “bloc” in 2015. Then Russia invited the Greek government of A. Tsipras to join the BRICS investment bank and balance the suffocating economic and political pressure of creditors by receiving help from Russia. But the country’s then leader unfortunately rejected the offer, perhaps because he felt he couldn’t manage something so big.

The official invitation to Greece to participate as a member in the then emerging new Development Bank created by the BRICS countries (China, Russia, Brazil, India, South Africa) was publicly made by the Russian Deputy Minister of Finance and press secretary/representative of the bank Sergei Storchak in an exclusive interview, which he then gave APPE-MPE, but this was preceded by Vladimir Putin’s proposal to Tsipras during the latter’s visit in the spring of 2015.

In fact, S. Storchak then stated that “using the Russian ruble as a currency will make it possible to repay part of the loans and buy foreign currency.” When asked whether Greece’s participation in the BRICS bank would create problems with EUS. Storchak replied: “This possibility is very small because many EU member countries have decided to join another development institution. For example, there is a proposal by the Chinese government to create an Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), where 25% of the capital will be allocated to non-Asian countries. Great Britain, Germany, Italy, France – all EU member countries – decided to cooperate within the framework of the Asian Bank. So there are no problems, just as there are no questions for criticism. So far the reports I’ve read are quite positive.”

We all know what happened next and roughly “how it happened.” The important thing is that Greece “closed the door” to history in 2015, chained itself and threw the key to the castle into a “bottomless pit”… Various “smart people” then said that because of the Memorandum, the country could not take a loan from a non-EU country.

But by that time Greece had already defaulted on agreements with Russia, for example, on “South Stream” and the supply of Russian BMP-3s, and it is strange that the political system insists on instead honoring signatures that have been proven to be ethnocidal. In addition, theoretically, they could borrow the entire amount of the debt from the Development Bank and repay it in one payment in order to free themselves from the memorandums.

Refusal of the Papandreou government from the agreement on “South Stream” turned out to be a big mistake, and its unsuccessful replacement with the Azerbaijani TAP was obvious from the facts. When the Greeks found themselves unable to pay for electricity the previous summer and again in the middle of winter, the country was forced to buy very expensive American LNG to replace the volumes lost due to the cessation of Russian gas imports due to the war in Ukraine.

And finally, I’ll add one more thing: Greece would receive more than just money from BRICS to get back on its feet. The point is also that she would have unhindered access to all types of products from the huge world market and at very good prices. Something that has been especially painful in the last couple of years, when hyperinflation has bankrupted Greek citizens.

The ancients said that “opportunity is a goddess with hair on her forehead and a bald spot on the back of her head. If you don’t grab her by the hair when she passes you, it will be too late…

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