🇧🇷 🇷🇺 🇮🇳 🇨🇳 🇿🇦 🇪🇬 🇮🇷 🇪🇹 🇦🇪 🇸🇦 🇮🇩
BRICS
THE BRICS
P O L I T I C S · C R I M E · S O C I E T Y
Can BRICS become a real alternative to Western powers despite their political, criminal and social fragilities?
— GUIDING QUESTION
INTRODUCTION
A Bloc of Superlatives
50% 40% 11 4B+
WORLD POPULATION GLOBAL GDP (PPP) FULL MEMBERS INHABITANTS
Original 5 members: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa
2024 expansion: Egypt, Iran, Ethiopia, United Arab Emirates
2025: Indonesia joins as the first Southeast Asian member
Over 30 countries have expressed interest in joining
OUTLINE
Three Angles
A Growing Economic & Political Power
I Multipolar ambitions · NDB · Dollar alternatives
Crime, Corruption & Security
II Petrobras · Russian oligarchs · Eskom · Cybercrime
Social Challenges & Limits
III Inequality · Urbanisation · Internal divisions
PART I — POLITICS
A Major Global Actor
40% $100B 30+
WORLD OIL PRODUCTION NDB CAPITAL (2014) COUNTRIES WANT TO JOIN
"The process of forming a multipolar world order is underway — a dynamic and irreversible process."
— VLADIMIR PUTIN, KAZAN SUMMIT 2024
Challenge Western dominance: IMF, World Bank, G7, UN Security Council
New Development Bank: a direct rival to IMF & World Bank
Over 40% of global energy resources controlled by BRICS members
PART I — POLITICS
Challenging Dollar Dominance
The Goal Recent Example
Since Western sanctions on Russia (2022), Russia & China trade
Reduce dependence on the US dollar
more in yuan
Trade in local currencies (yuan, rupee, real…)
India buys Russian oil in rupees
Build alternative payment systems to SWIFT
Kazan 2024: BRICS explore a joint cross-border payment system
"The world is undergoing a major change that has not been seen in a century — chaotic and changing."
— XI JINPING, KAZAN SUMMIT 2024
PART I — POLITICS · INTERNAL TENSIONS
Unity on Stage, Division Behind
🇨🇳 China 🇮🇳 India
2nd largest economy worldwide Most populated country since 2023
World's top exporter Strong economic growth (~7% GDP/yr)
Leads BRICS technological push Space & digital ambitions
China vs India: decades-old border dispute + rivalry for Global South leadership
Russia: ICC war crimes warrant forced Putin to attend 2023 summit via video link
2025 Rio Summit: Both Xi and Putin declined to travel — a symbolic blow to BRICS unity
PART II — CRIME & CORRUPTION
Corruption Index 2025
Transparency International CPI — Score /100 (higher = cleaner)
Denmark 89
China 43
S.
41
Africa
India 39
Brazil 35
Russia 22
⚠ Global average: 43/100 · Over ⅔ of countries score below 50
PART II — CRIME · CASE STUDIES
Three Scandals
🇧🇷 Petrobras 🇷🇺 Oligarchs 🇿🇦 Eskom
Opaque financial networks exposed by
Billions diverted in public contracts State utility hit by corruption, theft &
2022 sanctions
Major political crisis — former President organised sabotage
Direct links between money and state
Lula jailed (2018) Massive rolling blackouts — up to
power
2024: Trafigura admits illegal payments 12h/day in 2023
Navalny's anti-corruption work
linked to Petrobras Economic slowdown & public anger
criminalised as "extremist"
Corruption does not exist in a vacuum — it enables organised crime, violence, and impunity.
— TRANSPARENCY INTERNATIONAL, 2024
PART II — ORGANISED CRIME
Gangs, Cyber & Violence
🇧🇷 Brazilian Gangs 🇷🇺 Cybercrime
PCC & Comando Vermelho control entire favela districts in Rio & Russia accused of state-sponsored cyberattacks on NATO
São Paulo countries
Drug trafficking + urban violence — Brazil has 40,000+ Ransomware groups (Conti, LockBit) targeting hospitals &
homicides/year governments
1,013 climate activists murdered since 2019 — 80% in the Estimated $1B+ in annual damages attributed to Russian cyber
Americas groups
2025: BRICS reinforce cooperation against money laundering & financial crime — but limited judicial independence remains a major
obstacle
PART III — SOCIETY
Deep Inequalities
934M 84.7M 47%
INFORMAL WORKERS (MAINLY INDIA) UNEMPLOYED ACROSS BRICS FEMALE LABOUR PARTICIPATION
🇮🇳 India 🇧🇷 Brazil 🇨🇳 China
Strong GDP growth but massive rural Favelas + urban violence
Youth unemployment: 20%+ in 2023
poverty One of the world's highest Gini
Massive city vs rural divide
Top 1% own 40% of national wealth coefficients
PART III — URBANISATION & HUMAN RIGHTS
Cities Under Pressure
🏙 Megacity Challenge ⚠ Human Rights
Only 2.49% of BRICS summit commitments (2009–2022)
Shanghai, Mumbai, São Paulo face pollution, overcrowding, addressed human rights
precarious housing Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia rank lowest on the Human Freedom
Rapid urbanisation without adequate infrastructure investment Index
Delhi, Beijing, Mumbai rank among world's most polluted cities CIVICUS: BRICS expansion creates an "international repressive
alliance"
"BRICS is not anti-West — it is non-West."
— NARENDRA MODI, INDIAN PRIME MINISTER
CONCLUSION
Power Without Justice?
✅ A major economic power (46% of world GDP) ✅ A rising political actor (multipolar vision)
❌ Deeply corrupt (average CPI: 35/100) ❌ Socially unequal (934M informal workers)
❌ Divided internally (China vs India, Russia's isolation) ❌ Repressive (only 2.49% focus on human rights)