The BRICS in Russia's Post‐Ukraine War Status‐Seeking: Practical and Normative Challenges to the West

ABSTRACT

The Russian Federation is a founding member of the BRICS association and has been one of its key driving forces. Moscow has historically shared other members' interest in using the BRICS to reform global economic governance. Later, it treated the association as a tool in the geostrategic competition with the West and for promoting multipolarity. Significantly, the BRICS has also been an important status symbol for Russia, as it sought to reestablish its place among the great powers of the day. This paper examines how, since the start of the Ukraine War, Russia's BRICS policy has evolved into a vehicle for challenging the West's high‐status positions in global financial architecture and the liberal international rules‐based order.