Putin's Global South Blitz Targets Energy, Trade Deals — SkimNews
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- Putin convened roughly 18 heads of state across three events in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), Vladivostok, and New Delhi, plus a state visit by Vietnam's leader, with the agenda dominated by fuel, trade, and transit rather than the Ukraine war.
- Ukraine's offensive campaign targeting Russian oil refining capacity has forced Moscow to import refined fuel from traditional export partners Belarus, Turkey, and India, reshaping Moscow's energy diplomacy posture.
- Russia is pushing to finalize the Power of Siberia 2 pipeline (50 billion cubic meters of gas annually to China via Mongolia), signed a new strategic oil reserves deal in Vietnam, and expanded nuclear cooperation talks with Turkey's Erdogan, Vietnam's To Lam, and India's Modi.
- BRICS economies now account for roughly 40% of global GDP with mutual trade turnover exceeding US$1 trillion for the first time last year, while Russia's trade with the SCO exceeded US$400 billion in 2025 and Asia represented 73.4% of Russia's total trade turnover.
- Russia is lobbying two transcontinental routes to bypass Middle East disruption — the 7,200-km International North-South Transport Corridor linking Baltic ports to Mumbai via the Caspian and Iran, and the 5,600-km Northern Sea Route, which Beijing entered commercially in August.
- Putin secured US$7.7 billion in investments at the Vladivostok forum alongside deals with Vietnam, with the engagements sending a signal to Washington amid CIA and Treasury chief consultations with Russian counterparts and Trump's personal envoys visiting Moscow.
Why it matters: With Ukraine's refinery strikes forcing Russia to import fuel from countries it once exported to, Putin is converting a domestic vulnerability into a Global South sales pitch — securing US$7.7 billion in Vladivostok investments and using the November APEC summit in China as a potential venue for a first Putin-Xi-Trump trilateral that would publicly contest the 'isolated Moscow' narrative.
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