Russian President Vladimir Putin has used the 29th St Petersburg International Economic Forum to declare that the global economic order is shifting irreversibly toward a multipolar world.
He argued that the BRICS nations now outperform the G7 and that Western financial dominance is in terminal decline.
Addressing world leaders and more than 20,000 delegates from 130 countries, Putin declared that BRICS nations now account for approximately 40 percent of global GDP in purchasing power parity terms, against less than 29 percent for the G7.
“Almost half of global annual growth — 49 percent — is accounted for by BRICS countries, whereas the contribution of the so-called Group of Seven is estimated at 18 percent,” Putin told the plenary session.
Putin argued that Western sanctions had ultimately strengthened Russia’s economic resilience, pointing to a dramatic reduction in the country’s dependence on oil and gas revenues from 50 percent of the federal budget to just 20 percent.
“The sanctions and, basically, the theft of Russia’s international reserves have had an irreversible effect on the positions of the US dollar and the euro. Today, every country — without exception — understands that, like Russia, it could at any moment lose access to assets lawfully held in dollars or euros,” he said.
Multi-Polar Vision
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan announced a landmark nuclear power plant project with Russia — featuring two small and two large reactors — and proposed a Eurasian Technological Industrialisation Belt linking production clusters across the region. Chinese Vice President Han Zheng reaffirmed Beijing’s commitment to multilateral governance, citing the recent China-Russia joint declaration on a multipolar world order.
SPIEF, held annually in St Petersburg since 1997, has grown into one of Russia’s most prominent economic diplomacy platforms, typically drawing heads of state, senior ministers, and major corporate leaders.
The 2026 forum runs under the theme Pragmatic Dialogue: The Path to a Stable Future and comes as Russia continues to navigate Western sanctions imposed following its 2022 military offensive in Ukraine. Putin’s SPIEF address has become a key vehicle for Moscow to project economic confidence to the Global South and position Russia as a central node in an emerging non-Western economic architecture.
