Socialist dictator of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro arrived in Kazan, Russia, on Tuesday to participate in the 16th annual summit of the BRICS anti-U.S. bloc.
Maduro landed amid reports from Brazilian outlets indicating that Venezuela would likely not receive an invitation to join the group at Brazil’s request.
According to CNN Brasil, BRICS member states approved on Wednesday a list of 13 countries that would join the bloc as “Partner States” and not as full members. The list reportedly includes Turkey, Indonesia, Algeria, Belarus, Cuba, Bolivia, Malaysia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Vietnam, Nigeria, and Uganda — leaving Venezuela out of a prospective membership.
“We are at the XVI BRICS Summit to share the experience, the historical struggle of Venezuela, the dreams and hopes of a world without colonialism, hegemonism or imperialism, but of a world where the emerging superpowers can share with the countries that aspire from the global south to independence, development and prosperity,” Maduro said in a message posted on his Telegram account — the socialist regime’s new go-to platform after Maduro had Twitter banned in Venezuela on August.
“The BRICS are the epicenter of a new multipolar world, of the new geopolitics, of the diplomacy of Peace and above all they are the hope for the countries of the South, who aspire to development and who carry the flag of equality and freedom,” he continued.
Upon arriving at Kezan, the socialist dictator proclaimed that “we are prepared to be part of the new BRICS world” and that Venezuela will contribute to the construction of a “multicentric and pluripolar world that is being born.”
According to Maduro, the alleged multicentric world will have the “the possibility of accessing an economy that is not managed through the use of sanctions, blackmail and hegemony; but that its foundation is cooperation and a truly free trade.”
Over the past decade, Maduro has made several unsuccessful attempts at convincing BRICS to grant Venezuela a membership spot into the group, going as far as to offer Venezuela’s oil, farmland, and other natural resources to the bloc during its 2023 gathering in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Maduro once again leveraged Venezuela’s oil resources by claiming that BRICS needs them in addition to Russia’s reserves in remarks given to reporters, the Russian state news agency Tass reported.
“I have always thought about the way of our possible integration within a major economic project of development, cooperation, of OPEC member states and others as countries possessing the world’s largest oil reserves,” Maduro told reporters.
Maduro met with Russian strongman and BRICS summit host Vladimir Putin on Wednesday morning. According to Tass, both discussed “bilateral issues and cooperation within the BRICS framework.” Maduro initially planned to meet with Putin in Russia in December 2023, but the encounter was repeatedly postponed throughout 2024.
“Russia and Venezuela have built indestructible ties, political ties, moral ties and ties that have been put to the test in all these years,” Maduro said after the encounter.
Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), the socialist regime’s main propaganda channel, reported that Maduro expressed his admiration of Putin “for the battle that Russia is giving against Nazism, against fascism” – an apparent reference to Putin’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine – noting that Putin “has been able to lead the people of Russia on all fronts.”
Maduro also affirmed that Venezuela “is on the path of the BRICS” and stressed that Venezuela follows the guidelines of the geopolitical bloc “out of conviction.”
Maduro arrived to Russia as several Brazilian outlets reported on Wednesday that Venezuela has been left out of the list of prospective new BRICS member-states, allegedly at the request of founding member Brazil, whose far-left President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva appears to be at odds with Maduro following the dictator’s highly fraudulent July 28 presidential election, which he claims he “won.”
“The Russians know about Lula’s irritation with Maduro,” the Brazilian outlet G1, citing information allegedly obtained by TV Globo, reported.
Lula’s alleged opposition to a Venezuelan BRICS membership follows comments in May 2023 in which he publicly expressed support for Venezuela becoming a member of the bloc.
CNN Brasil reported on Tuesday that, according to anonymous Brazilian diplomats involved in the BRICS summit negotiations, Brazil argued that consensus is needed among BRICS members to bar new entries to the group. The consensus rule, according to CNN Brasil, was used “behind the scenes” as a justification for preventing Venezuela’s entry into the bloc.
“I don’t think there’s a veto on Venezuela in the formal sense, but decisions are usually made by consensus,” Celso Amorim, President Lula’s top foreign policy adviser, told CNN Brasil.
Maduro also held several meetings with some of his top allies prior to his encounter with Putin, including meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, and the head of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
