What to know about Putin's BRICS summit with world leaders

State of play: U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby said at a press briefing Monday that the U.S. did not view BRICS as a "threat."

• The summit should not be viewed as a "coming out party" for Putin, he added.
• "Russia is increasingly isolated on the world stage. There's no question about that," Kirby said.

What is BRICS?

Founded in 2006, the bloc was originally conceived of as an organization of economically developing nations.

• Originally made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the bloc added four new members earlier this year — Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• This week's summit, opening Tuesday and lasting through Thursday, is also the first BRICS gathering since the bloc expanded its membership.

Zoom in: From the start, BRICS was devised as a counterweight to the West's geopolitical and economic clout, which was embodied particularly through forums like the G7, and later the G8.

• BRICS has become a powerful forum for nations outside the West and has even created its own institutions — like the New Development Bank (NDB) and Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) — to compete with the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
• The BRICS members — plus Saudi Arabia, which has been invited to join but has yet to do so — make up nearly a quarter of the global GDP and nearly half of the global population, per an analysis from Boston Consulting Group.

Who attended this year's summit?

Over 30 countries were represented at the summit in the Russian city of Kazan, Putin's foreign policy aide Yury Ushakov told reporters earlier this month, per Russian state news agency TASS.

• Foreign leaders expected to attend include Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• Putin is expected to hold bilateral meetings with all three of them, as well as UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Ushakov told reporters Monday, per TASS.
• Other attendees include representatives from groups like the Eurasian Economic Union and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, Ushakov added.

What has Putin said about the summit?

Putin said at an event earlier this month that Russia was "open to discussing" the building of a new world order with its friends and allies, TASS reported.

• "It is in this spirit that we are preparing the BRICS and Outreach/BRICS Plus summit," he added.
• Putin last week hailed the "undeniable fact" of the BRICS' growing economic and political clout, noting that it will lead to "bigger global influence."
• He has denied that the bloc is anti-Western.

What happened during the BRICS summit?

World leaders discussed the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine during the course of the summit, as well as the need to create a multipolar world.

• Putin decried the West's efforts to hinder a transition to a multipolar world.
• He claimed its methods were creating new conflicts around the world — citing the war he started in Ukraine as an example. He said the conflict was "being exploited to create critical threats to Russia's security," TASS reported.
• Erdoğan also addressed the importance of multipolarity, praising BRICS for helping create a "fair world order," per TASS.

Zoom in: Putin also faced calls from several attendees for deescalation in Ukraine.

• "We need to work for an early de-escalation of the situation and pave the way for a political settlement," Xi said of the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.
• Guterres also called for a "just peace in line with the UN Charter" for Ukraine, and also made pleas for peace in Gaza and Lebanon, per Reuters.

Go deeper: The world isn't lining up behind the West against Russia

Editor's note: This story was updated with new development from the summit.