Putin wants to strengthen a big challenger to Western dominance

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is eyeing a bigger global role for the BRICS bloc.

• Putin recently raised the possibility of a BRICS parliament, which would formalize the group.

• BRICS, chaired by Russia this year, is expanding with new members from the Global South.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has set his sights on a bigger role for a group of emerging nations as he seeks to topple the West-led world order.

The group is known as BRICS for original members Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which collectively form the bloc's acronym. New members include Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina, and the United Arab Emirates.

BRICS was formed in 2009 with its first summit. The group founded the Shanghai-headquartered New Development Bank in 2015 and was largely an informal grouping until recently. It's now positioning itself as a counterweight to the G7 and the West amid increasing geopolitical tensions globally.

Putin recently weighed in on the structure of the group.

"BRICS does not have its own official parliamentary organization at this stage, but I believe that this idea will definitely be materialized somewhere down the road," Putin said last Thursday at the BRICS Parliamentary Forum in St Petersburg, according to an official transcript from the Kremlin.

Putin did not elaborate on how this structure would work, but his comments illustrate how Russia is using its position as BRICS chair this year to bolster the group. A parliamentary structure would formalize the group even further.

His comments come amid increasing interest in the bloc from the Global South.

Just last month, the Southeast Asian nations of Thailand and Malaysia said they were interested in joining the bloc. Thailand has submitted a formal request for membership, while Malaysia's prime minister said it was preparing to start its application process.

A larger and more structured BRICS bloc could have more bargaining power and create an alternative to the West-led global order.

As Rich Lesser, the global chair of the Boston Consulting Group, wrote in a May note, the expanded BRICS bloc — which includes major oil producers Saudi Arabia and UAE — now controls over 40% of the world's oil production, "making it an important international actor."

It could also help Russia's sanctions-hit economy.

Last month, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said BRICS countries are developing a payments platform that will allow them to bypass the US dollar.

Not everybody is convinced about whether BRICS could be an effective counterweight to the West. After all, the BRICS countries' interests do not always align within the group.

India, for one, is balancing interests among the US, China, and Russia. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Russia recently, even though New Delhi is in a strategic partnership with the US. This is in part because Modi needs Russia as a buffer against China — a BRICS member with whom India has a border dispute.

But the BRICS group should not be counted out, wrote as Ian Bremmer, the president of the Eurasia Group, in a report earlier this month.

"BRICS is a low-stakes forum for these countries to meet and talk about common grievances that the US and the West should pay at least slightly more attention to," he wrote.

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