By Helen Hernandez

In November 2004, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, made the first visit of a head of state of his country to Brazil. At that time, he highlighted the strategic importance of the South American giant for Russian foreign policy, and compared it to that of countries such as China, France and Ukraine. eighteen years later, Putin himself is preparing the reception for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, already campaigning for his re-election, who must disembark in Moscow in mid-February – shortly after Alberto Fernández passed through the same country – on one of the stops on a tour that will also include contacts with the governments of Hungary and Poland.

The idea of the visit came from the Russian president, confirmed to THE NATION Brazilian government sources, who announced it shortly after handing over credentials to the new Brazilian ambassador in Moscow, Rodrigo Baena Soares, Last December. When analyzing the trip of the Brazilian head of state -in the midst of Russia’s crisis with the European Union (EU) and with the United States due to the tension on the border with Ukraine- It is clear that Bolsonaro’s intention is to show that contrary to what his detractors say, not isolated from the world.

The Brazilian president accepted Putin’s invitation with delight because he knows that in Moscow he will be received with honors, just as the former president was Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, his main rival, in his visits to Paris, Berlin and Madrid, in the second half of last year.

With Putin, the Hungarian Prime Minister, Victor Orbán and the President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, the Brazilian head of state feels very comfortable. With everyone, Bolsonaro shares an agenda of ultraconservative values, also defended, among others, by the Spanish right wing led by the Vox party, and, in the United States, by former President Donald Trump. That was always the outside world in which the president of Brazil moved like a fish in water, and in the 2023 electoral campaign it had no reason to be different. Bolsonaro chooses to speak to his tough, faithful base and that, according to Brazilian analysts, represents about 25% of the national electorate.

Showing off as an internationally connected president can also earn him some centrist support needed to eventually make it to a runoff. Lula is preparing a trip to Mexico and his collaborators are already thinking of a visit to the United States. Bolsonaro, who in all of 2021 only left Brazil to participate in the inauguration of the president of Ecuador, William Lasso; of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York (where he faced contrary demonstrations and criticism for not being vaccinated against Covid-19), and making a criticized tour of the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar, he chose to visit very friendly governments that assure you a smooth trip.

In the opinion of Oliver Stuenkel, professor of International Relations at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV), “Bolsonaro’s main objective is to generate positive news.”

“Russia is a great power, and despite the crisis between Russia and the EU due to the tension with Ukraine, that does not matter to Bolsonaro, because their relationship with the Europeans could not be worse. The same goes for the United States.”, assures Stuenkel.

If for Bolsonaro’s critics, a photo with Putin or Orban generates immediate rejection, for the Bolsonarist support base the reaction is totally the opposite. And that is exactly what the president of Brazil is looking for: to demolish the theory that he has no weighty international allies.

The last Brazilian president who visited Moscow was Michel Temer, in 2017. Today, Brazil accumulates a trade deficit of 4 billion dollars a year with Russia, mainly from the import of Russian fertilizers (which explains the presence in the Brazilian delegation of the Minister of Agriculture, Tereza Cristina). There are many interests at stake, commented a Brazilian government source, who recalled that both countries are partners in the BRICS, a group that also includes China, India and South Africa.

Both presidents, the source expanded, “are interested in a bilateral meeting at this time.” “For Putin, it is an opportunity to receive support in the midst of their disputes with the EU and the United States. For Bolsonaro, an interesting way to start the electoral year with a high-profile trip style in a global power”.

The Brazilian president hopes, for example, that Putin express its support for the Brazilian aspiration to occupy a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council, of which Russia is a part. Brazil has just started a two-year rotating mandate in the body. When a Brazilian source is asked about the crisis with Ukraine, the answer is that this is not a problem for Brazil.

Meanwhile, Russia and the United States play their cards to have Brazil as an ally in the event of an eventual escalation of the conflict. United States Secretary of State, Antony Blinken communicated a few days ago with the Brazilian Foreign Minister, Carlos França, to request that Brazil, if necessary, take a strong and forceful position on the crisis between Russia and Ukraine. The Brazilian foreign minister’s response was that your country will always defend constructive dialogue as a means to reach solutions. Clearly, it is not what the Joe Biden administration expects.

The bilateral agenda between Brazil and Russia also includes topics such as Russian investments in the areas of oil and gas, space and cultural cooperation. After his visit to Brasilia, in 2019, Putin held a virtual meeting with Bolsonaro in 2020 and at that time he assured that Bolsonaro met “the best masculine qualities”. The Brazilian president reciprocated the praise in another virtual meeting organized last year, and in it he said that relations between Brazil and Russia constitute “a strategic alliance”.

For the researcher and professor at the Institute of International Relations (IRI) of the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Monica Herz, “this is not an international politics trip, is the reaffirmation, by Bolsonaro, of his position in the confrontation with the PT, the same thing he did in 2018″.

Lula’s trips abroad have had a great impact on the international press and, to a lesser extent, on the Brazilian press. Links with other countries have always been one of the specialties of the former Brazilian president and candidate, from the time when he was one of the strongest union leaders in Brazil.

The professor and researcher of International Relations at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) Miriam Gomes Saraiva believes that Bolsonaro’s trip seeks to “balance spaces with Lula, who has been successful in his visits abroad”.

“The president wants to soften the image of a head of state isolated from the world, to put an end to the narrative that today nobody is interested in Brazil,” the professor concluded.

OI Canadian

The views in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of InfoBRICS.