Russian President Vladimir Putin will not attend the summit of the BRICS group of nations in South Africa in August “by mutual agreement”, South Africa’s presidency said on Wednesday.

“By mutual agreement, President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation will not attend the summit, but the Russian Federation will be represented by Foreign Minister Mr [Sergey] Lavrov,” Vincent Magwenya, a spokesman for President Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a statement.

South Africa faced a dilemma in hosting the summit because, as a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued an arrest warrant for Putin in March for alleged war crimes, it would theoretically be required to arrest him if he were to attend.

The dilemma led to intense debate in South Africa and the West about whether the warrant would be executed, given South Africa’s stance of neutrality on the war in Ukraine and Pretoria’s historic ties to the Kremlin.

In 2015, South Africa also failed to arrest then-Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, who was also the subject of an ICC warrant.

The leaders of Brazil, India and South Africa will attend the summit, the presidency said.

BRICS, a bloc of emerging economic powers comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China was formed in 2019 as BRIC. South Africa joined the following year after an invitation from China, expanding the group.

Ethiopia, Iran and Argentina have also applied to join the bloc.

mediabiasfactcheck.com/al-jazeera/

  • Carcosa@lemmygrad.ml
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    Russia is not on the verge of collapse, the IMF predicted that Russian GDP would rebound slightly in 2023 to 0.3 percent growth, and in 2024, the Russian economy is predicted to grow by 2.1 percent.

    https://www.newsweek.com/russias-economy-forecast-outperform-us-within-two-years-1777788

    That’s higher than the IMF’s projection for the United States, which it said would see only 1 percent GDP growth that year, and down from a predicted 1.4 percent in 2023, and the 2 percent the U.S. enjoyed in 2022.

    China isn’t doing anything of the sort. What they’re doing is fighting religious extremism, the sort of which no western country would ever tolerate. It’s interesting how the same people who purport to support human rights are pretty comfortable with theocracy when it suits their geopolitical interests.

    Tibetean Buddhist Feudalism was responsible for slavery, and brutal torture

    The charges made by the Dalai Lama himself about Chinese mass sterilization and forced deportation of Tibetans have remained unsupported by any evidence. Both the Dalai Lama and his advisor and youngest brother, Tendzin Choegyal, claimed that “more than 1.2 million Tibetans are dead as a result of the Chinese occupation.” [38]

    No matter how often stated, that figure is puzzling. The official 1953 census—six years before the Chinese crackdown—recorded the entire population of Tibet at 1,274,000. Other estimates varied from one to three million. [39]

    Other census counts put the ethnic Tibetan population within the country at about two million. If the Chinese killed 1.2 million in the early 1960s then whole cities and huge portions of the countryside, indeed almost all of Tibet, would have been depopulated, transformed into a killing field dotted with death camps and mass graves—of which we have seen no evidence. The Chinese military force in Tibet was not big enough to round up, hunt down, and exterminate that many people even if it had spent all its time doing nothing else.

    1. Tendzin Choegyal, “The Truth about Tibet,” Imprimis (publication of Hillsdale College, Michigan), April 1999.

    2. Karan, The Changing Face of Tibet, 52-53.

    According to preliminary data from the seventh national census in 2020, the total population of Xinjiang was 25.85 million, among which the Han ethnic group numbered 10.92 million, and ethnic minorities 14.93 million. The population of ethnic groups in Xinjiang increased from 4.45 million in 1953 to 14.93 million in 2020

    The Uygur population grew at a compound annual growth rate of 1.67 per cent during the first two decades in the 21st century, which was much higher than that of the country’s ethnic minority population, which stood at 0.83 per cent. The Uygur population grew from 3.61 million in 1953 to more than 11.62 million in 2020 Xinjiang Population Dynamics and Data report

    Here’s an interview with a son of imam killed in Xinjiang which makes it pretty clear that religious people are a target just like everyone else https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-06-19/Son-of-imam-assassinated-in-Kashgar-s-2014-mosque-attack-speaks-out-RqNiyrcRuo/index.html

    Here’s another interview with Imams https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/on-eid-xinjiang-imams-defend-china-against-u-s-criticism-1.5425967

    A Pakistani journalist who has been all over Xinjiang (which borders Pakistan) claims that western media reports on “atrocities” are lies. https://dailytimes.com.pk/723317/exposing-the-occidents-baseless-lies-about-xinjiang/

    Western reports on Xinjiang don’t support the lurid narrative you’re pushing either

    https://idi-international.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/New-Report.pdf
    https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/statement/2019/11/11/world-bank-statement-on-review-of-project-in-xinjiang-china
    

    Representatives of Arab majority nations actually wrote a letter to the UN in support of China https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3853509?ln=en

    The reality is that US has been funding and arming extremists in Xinjiang trying to replicate Afghanistan model when they toppled a socialist government there. Don’t take my word for it though, here’s George Bush’s chief of staff openly saying that US wants to destabilize the region, and NED recently admitting to funding Uyghur separatism for the past 16 years on their own official Twitter page. An ex-CIA operative details US operations radicalizing and training terrorists in the region in this book. Here’s an excerpt:

    Throughout the 1990s, hundreds of Uyghurs were transported to Afghanistan by the CIA for training in guerilla warfare by the mujahideen. When they returned to Xinjiang, they formed the East Turkistan Islamic Movement and came under Catli’s expert direction. Graham Fuller, CIA superspy, offered this explanation for radicalizing the Chinese Muslims:
    
    The policy of guiding the evolution of Islam and of helping them [Muslims] against our adversaries worked marvelously well in Afghanistan and against the Red Army. The doctrines can still be used to destabilize what remains of Russian power, and especially to counter Chinese influence in Central Asia.
    

    US has been stoking terrorism in the region while they’ve been running a propaganda campaign against China in the west.

    And of course, before US started weaponizing terrorists they themselves were fighting these people https://www.mintpressnews.com/us-was-at-war-uyghur-terrorists-now-claims-etim-doesnt-exist/276916/

    While Lula seeks to distance Brazil from the oppressive nature of “Dollar Diplomacy” which funds forever wars and military baes around the world Bolsonaro had ties to the united states far right

    “Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s former chief strategist and a family friend of Bolsonaro’s, took to his podcast, ‘Bannon’s War Room’, to raise allegations of electoral fraud. Bannon was joined by Matthew Tyrmand, a board member for Project Veritas – a discredited US group that uses hidden cameras to supposedly ‘expose’ leftist journalists – and Darren Beattie, a former Trump speechwriter who was fired in 2018 after it emerged he had met with white nationalists two years earlier. (Beattie told US media he had said “nothing objectionable” at this meeting.)”

    In closing, you should not toss BRICS into a bin labeled “authoritarians” as I doubt you fully understand the word.

    “The importance of examining BRICS’ challenge to the US dollar’s dominance lies in the group’s collective economic power. BRICS accounts for 24 percent of world GDP and over 16 percent of world trade”

    “To be sure, the US dollar is still the dominant currency in nearly every aspect of the current global financial system, and it is unlikely that another currency will replace the dollar any time soon. However, history reminds us that the US dollar’s dominant status should not be assumed to last forever.”

    https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/can-brics-dedollarize-the-global-financial-system/0AEF98D2F232072409E9556620AE09B0

      • o_d [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        Who cares if it’s copypasta? It’s well sourced to the point where you’re completely unable to come up with any sort of counter-argument. “ItS gEnOcIdE dEnIAl!”. Then prove it libtard.

          • o_d [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            Believing Chinese fairytales and demand sources.

            This isn’t an argument. Thank you for proving my point.

            You people are amazing.

            Aaawwweee! Thaaaanks! ☺️

            • Beetschnapps@universeodon.com
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              @o_d @rustyfish “awee” your self to the toilet. The article isn’t well sourced: “Boris Grozovski, a Russian economics expert from the Wilson Center think tank, told Newsweek…” that’s also ignorant of the fact that this is a comparison of the economic growth of Russia, a country with an gdp equivelant to Italy vs the dominant economic power over the entire planet aka the USA. California the state makes more money than russia. You’re desperate/stupid. “Awee” away dumbass

              • o_d [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                Okay, but you’re missing the point. The argument that @C4RCOSA@lemmygrad.ml makes is in the first line of their first post in this thread.

                Russia is not on the verge of collapse

                Nothing you’ve stated does anything to disprove the evidence presented nor does it disprove the statement made in isolation of any evidence.

                Edit: I suppose it was naive of me to assume that any of you reactionaries would have bothered to actually read the content that you’re supposedly refuting. Your dogmatism is clearly on display here.

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                  @o_d @C4RCOSA I’m replying to your nonsense replies propping up the BS article in the first place. There also happens to be plenty of data to support that Russia is not flourishing, and is legit suffering from sanctions. No shortage of evidence there. From fielding tanks out of the 50s, to their private and commercial air fleets… you’d have to be ignorant to claim blue skies. You’re spouting the trumpian BS of “people are saying” while claiming other people have no source

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                    @o_d @C4RCOSA that’s not to say they are on the verge of total collapse either. But def not roses and sunshine. Sorry I couldn’t previously add more as mastodon limits character count and has no simple down vote mechanism. It’s a bit weird seeing replies with no mention of what they’re replying to, spread across the space with equal prominence as original posts. At times it feels like mastodon has no concept of threads and this everything is noise compared to signal

      • Carcosa@lemmygrad.ml
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        Chinese homeownership is 89% compared to the united states 65% under Xi Jinping’s tenure

        Chinese poverty has continued to decrease under Xi Jinping’s tenure

        Chinese literacy rate has continued to increase and is higher than the United States

        Chinese maternal mortality rate has continued to decrease while the Untied States is increasing

        China’s homicide rate has continued to decrease while the United States is increasing

        China’s suicide rate has continued to decrease while the United States is increasing

        https://www.macrotrends.net/

        I feel sorry for those that live in the west, maybe if you vote hard enough your oligarch will grant you a crumb or a low interest morgage

        • rustyfish@lemmy.world
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          Having to compare oneself with the capitalist hellhole that is the United States just to look good is really telling for China.

          Also more copypasta. I give up.

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      Pretty copypasta you have here. But there’s a lot of obvious bullshit - I admit I didn’t even bother reading it in full, but:

      Russia is not on the verge of collapse, the IMF predicted that Russian GDP would rebound slightly in 2023 to 0.3 percent growth, and in 2024, the Russian economy is predicted to grow by 2.1 percent. That’s higher than the IMF’s projection for the United States, which it said would see only 1 percent GDP growth that year, and down from a predicted 1.4 percent in 2023, and the 2 percent the U.S. enjoyed in 2022.

      I’m not sure where that article got those numbers, but we can check IMF report now to see that prediction for russia is 0.7% in 2023 and 1.3% for 2024. For USA that’s 1.6% and 1.1% respectively. Yet somehow that article claims, that:

      Russia’s Economy Forecast to Outperform U.S. Within Two Years

      First of all. This is at best sign of some recovery after -2.1% “growth” russia was experiencing last year. Compared to USA 2.1% growth last year. (notice the absence of minus sign there) So even percentage-wise this does not even place russia at the beginning of 2022. Remember that these add up. Meanwhile over these 3 years (if predictions are accurate) USA will see almost 5% increase.

      Now overall that is still moot point ignoring the biggest elephant in the room that is the absolute size of the economies. The russian nominal GDP is about $2.2 trillion while USA is 10x bigger at around $25 trillion. So that 5% increase for USA means almost $1.3 trillion increase in absolute numbers. In other words USA’s GDP (according to these predictions) will increase by almost half of entire russian GDP.

      I’m not saying that russia is on verge of collapsing economically. Personally I’d say it will collapse politically before that. But that article is pure misinformation.

        • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          No idea. It might be the perfect match to be honest. Russia will have lack of men due to war, China already has lack of women due to 1 child policy… (Just kind of joking, I really have no idea)

      • Carcosa@lemmygrad.ml
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        Lol lets see that political collapse source then, I provided many and you’ve got none for this narritive you have put forth. In fact the quelling of the Pringles revolt has galvanized the Russian political scene in favor of Putin.

        • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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          You provided fairytales about russian economy overtaking USA not sources.

          • Carcosa@lemmygrad.ml
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            Publication: Global Economic Prospects, June 2023

            " In Russia, the contraction this year is envisaged to be milder than initially forecast, partially due to the continued flow of energy exports"

            “In the United States, growth is expected to weaken significantly through 2023 and early 2024, mainly as a result of the lagged effects of the sharp rise in policy rates over the past year”

            “Growth is forecast to strengthen in 2023, to rates higher than projected in January, mainly reflecting developments in the regions’ [second] largest economy—the Russian Federation.”

            " Output in Russia is projected to contract less than anticipated in January mainly due to more resilient-than-expected oil production and higher- than-expected growth momentum from 2022"

            “Increases in U.S. interest rates associated with inflation or reaction shocks should lead to more adverse spillovers because rising interest rates would coincide with weakening U.S. economic activity and dampened investor sentiment.”

            "The recent moderation in U.S. yields since the onset of U.S. banking sector stress appears to reflect negative real shocks amid heightened risk aversion and expectations of slower U.S. growth. "

            https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/6e892b75-2594-4901-a036-46d0dec1e753/content

            • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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              Right, now if you stop cherrypicking sentences that fit your agenda and just look at the numbers, for 2022-2024, the prediction is for russia to have negative growth of -1.1% while for USA this all adds up to 4% growth.

              And again, all of the previous stuff about sizes of economy applies.

              • Carcosa@lemmygrad.ml
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                Never once did I claim that the Russian economy would overtake the United states simply that the 2023 growth projections were higher for Russia than the United States. I will say you are correct regarding the size and cumulative natures of GDP growth, but add the caveat that this Russian economy growth is in spite of sanctions and removal from the SWIFT banking system.

                I’ll quote my original post:

                Russia is not on the verge of collapse, the IMF predicted that Russian GDP would rebound slightly in 2023 to 0.3 percent growth, and in 2024, the Russian economy is predicted to grow by 2.1 percent.

                https://www.newsweek.com/russias-economy-forecast-outperform-us-within-two-years-1777788

                That’s higher than the IMF’s projection for the United States, which it said would see only 1 percent GDP growth that year, and down from a predicted 1.4 percent in 2023, and the 2 percent the U.S. enjoyed in 2022.

                https://tradingeconomics.com

                www.statista.com

                I’ll again ask for any support to your claim that Russia will collapse politically

                MOSCOW, April 21. /TASS/. The proportion of Russian citizens’ confidence in President Vladimir Putin amounted to over 80%, according to the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center that published the results of a survey conducted between April 10 and 16 among 1,600 respondents aged over 18.

                “When asked about trust in Putin, 80.1% of respondents answered positively (+0.4% over the week), the approval rate of the Russian president’s work was up by 0.4% and stood at 77.5%,” the pollster noted.

                https://tass.com/society/1607641

                I acknowledge the bias with tass

                "Prigozhin has insisted that Putin wasn’t the target of his mutiny. Rather, he wanted to depose the leadership of the Russian defense ministry, with whom he’d been feuding. But Putin came out against Prigozhin’s armed march. And after a daylong revolt, Prigozhin backed down and agreed to go into exile in Belarus to avoid treason charges against him and his Wagner Group mercenary forces.

                Pomeranz noted that, aside from exiled or jailed opposition leaders, there are no serious figures openly styling themselves as alternatives to Putin in Russia right now." https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/30/vladimir-putin-ousted-wagner-group-00104272

                Putin’s ability to secure the support of regional governors and heads of states within the Russian Federation during the PMC Wagner rebellion highlighted his enduring influence in the political realms. This crisis served as a testament to the unity and support that Putin commands from key figures in Russia.

                In the broader post-Soviet context, Putin’s phone conversations with the presidents of Kazakhstan, Armenia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Turkey provided him with a clear understanding of who stood by his side during this tumultuous period.

                https://www.specialeurasia.com/2023/06/24/putin-wagner-crisis-power/

                • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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                  Never once did I claim that the Russian economy would overtake the United states

                  The article you shared did, which I pointed out. I’m disputing your article, I’m not saying you wrote it. Not sure where you came with that idea.

                  simply that the 2023 growth projections were higher for Russia than the United States

                  Higher in what sense? Comparing percentual growth of two economies that are not even in the same league is misleading at best. Somalia has predicted growth of 3.7% in 2024. What does that say compared to russia? Nothing really. It makes as much sense comparing percentual growth of US economy to russia’s. USA could drop to 0.5% growth and russia could achieve whooping 5% growth and in actual absolute numbers, the US economy would still grow faster.

                  I’ll again ask for any support to your claim that Russia will collapse politically

                  By “claim” you probably mean my personal opinion which I declared as such?

                  I feel like you’re just making up some non-existing claims and then keep disputing them. I have no time for that.

              • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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                The claim was that Russia’s economy is on the verge of collapse. The data presented shows that a longer forecast predicts a strengthening economy for Russia and a worsening economy for the US. You don’t have to like Russia, but the data does not support the idea that it’s about to collapse. If it does end up collapsing, it will be a statistical anomaly.

                This does not affect the overall percentage growth in the period being worse for Russia then the US. Russia invaded a country with a powerful military just after a global pandemic, and soon faced economic sanctions from the then-biggest economic bloc in the world. The fact that Russia’s economy took a hit is not in question. The question is whether the hit was enough to collapse it’s economy. Apparently, the answer is, no.

                • mea_rah@lemmy.world
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                  I have never claimed that russian economy is about to collapse. In fact if you scroll up the thread I actually said that I don’t think it will. So I’m not sure why you felt like disputing that in reply to my comment.

                  If it does end up collapsing, it will be a statistical anomaly.

                  I have lived through one such collapse already. Russia collapsing is statistical inevitability. 😂(this is joke BTW, you don’t need to dispute it)

                  • redtea@lemmygrad.ml
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                    The comment to which Carcosa initially responded states:

                    Russia is … on the verge of collapse.

                    Hence:

                    The claim was that Russia’s economy is on the verge of collapse. The data presented shows that a longer forecast predicts a strengthening economy for Russia … the data does not support the idea that it’s about to collapse. …

    • bossito@lemmy.world
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      So you’re denying genocides based on the ideology of the executer and not on the account of their victims, ok. Another block.

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      China is committing genocide, end of discussion.

      There is no room to tolerate genocide deniers.

      • Carcosa@lemmygrad.ml
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        I have refuted your claim with multiple and varied sources while you have provided none in response except for personal attacks. I can safely pronounce you a terminal liberal.

        • TimeNaan@lemmy.world
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          This is the most stereotypically reddit fedora shit I’ve read yet on lemmy