Extracts from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent interview (May 15, 2024)

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Q: This year, Russia has assumed the BRICS Chairmanship. Please tell us about Russia's priorities and plan of events as the BRICS Chair. How do you see the role of the BRICS mechanism in the global arena?

A: Russia’s BRICS Chairmanship has gained a steady momentum. Full-scale work is underway on all three main pillars of cooperation — politics and security, economy and finance, culture and people-to-people contacts.

One of the main goals of Russia’s Chairmanship is undoubtedly the seamless integration of the BRICS new members. We are actively assisting them in joining the existing network of cooperation mechanisms.

As another priority, we seek to continue coordinated work to enhance visibility of the association in global affairs & build its capacity to promote a more democratic, sustainable and fair architecture of international relations. I would like to particularly stress that cooperation within BRICS relies on the principles of mutual respect, equality, openness and consensus. That is why countries of the Global South & East, which see BRICS as a platform for their voices to be certainly heard and taken into account, find our association so attractive.

Russian agencies, business and public circles have prepared an extensive agenda for the Chairmanship. This includes a wide range of areas for enhancing interaction, including finance, agriculture, energy, intellectual property, healthcare, education & space exploration. Moreover, such niche and knowledge-intensive topics as nanotechnology, nuclear medicine & biotechnology are being discussed by experts in relevant fields.

We have held quite a few specialized events: in total, the Chairmanship plan envisages more than 200 of them. In addition to expert and ministerial meetings, they include numerous cultural events & youth activities. The BRICS Sports Games will take place in Kazan in June, and in October, the city will host the BRICS Summit.

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#BRICS

📆 #OTD, 33 years ago, in 1991, the main standard for web pages was established — WWW (World Wide Web). Before that day, there was only email, newsletters and file transfers.

🌐 That is why May 17 is one of the major contenders for the title of the International Internet Day. At the same time, none of the dates proposed for the celebration — April 4, May 17 and September 30 — have yet to become official.

🇷🇺 In Russia, Internet enthusiasts mark April 7 — it was #OTD in 1994 that the .ru domain appeared in the international database of national top-level domains.

🔸 @RusEmbIndia