For Putin, the simple fact that so many leaders travelled to Russia for the talks was useful in countering the narrative that his country faces isolation from the global economy.
"They (Western capitals) are not getting the importance of this thing," said Alicia Garcia-Herrero, a senior fellow at the Bruegel economic think tank. "It's all signalling that the West is losing power."
The final communique was long on words and short on detail about creating new payment and trade mechanisms which could by-pass Western-dominated structures - including, notably in Russia's case, sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.
But the summit scored a series of diplomatic wins: 1. the presence of U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres 2. and of Tayyip Erdogan, president of NATO member Turkey, which has expressed interest in joining the BRICS group 3. India and China chose the summit to profile new efforts to nurture ties.
"See how many people are scrambling to apply to join the BRICS," Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-British businessman who runs a foundation that tracks governance in Africa, told Reuters. Putin has said that more than 30 countries have applied.
"People see institutions which are not really representative or democratic - infrastructure established in 1945 or so after the world war, and nothing changes," added Ibrahim.
