AdvertisementRussia is flexing its muscles at the center of the BRICS economic bloc, which seeks to rival the West. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates are the new BRICS entrants, joining the earlier members Russia, India, China, Brazil, and South Africa. He said it had "no chance" of political unity given its members' competing interests and starkly differing attitudes. The greenback, though, will be hard to dethrone — even without competing priorities and rivalry among BRICS members. AdvertisementHe said that while BRICS members were united in a desire for change, "there's no real strategy within BRICS aside from fancy phrases to make it work."

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Persons: —, Vladimir Putin, Abishur Prakash, Anton Barbashin, South Africa —, Barbashin, Una Aleksandra Berzina, Evgeny Roshchin, Johns Hopkins University's Henry A, Putin, SWIFT, Yakov Organizations: Service, West, United, South, Riddle Russia, Riga Stradins University's China Studies Center, Politico, Center for, Johns, Kissinger Center, Global Affairs, Partners, Bank for International Locations: Russia, Western, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, United Arab Emirates, India, China, Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Russian, Toronto, —, Ukraine, standoffs, Moscow