George Galloway hails Putin’s Brics group as ‘the future’

Radical former MP speaks to The Telegraph at three-day summit in Kazan, Russia

George Galloway has hailed the pro-Russia Brics economic group as “the future”.
The radical former MP spoke to The Telegraph at the three-day Brics summit in Kazan, Russia, which Vladimir Putin has used to promote his invasion of Ukraine, criticise the West and accuse Israel of war crimes.
Mr Galloway said: “I’m a father of six. Brics is their future, and it’s very exciting. Brics now represents half the world’s population – this is a turning point in world history.”
Before talking to The Telegraph, he had given an interview to one of dozens of state TV stations from the 36 countries attending the summit, in which he criticised the small British press contingent as “hating Russia”. 
He also said there was more media freedom in Russia than in Britain.
Mr Galloway, who has previously worked for the Kremlin propaganda station RT, formerly Russia Today, and Press TV, an Iranian state media channel, said he had flown to Kazan to record episodes for his show The Mother of All Talk Shows.
The show is mainly broadcast on YouTube after the UK Government sanctioned Sputnik, the Russian state broadcaster that had carried it, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“This is a personal trip. I’m not working for anybody else,” said Mr Galloway.
In January, Putin expanded Brics from its original five members to 10, and sources have said he wants another 12 or so countries to join at the Kazan summit.
The Russian leader has used the event to show the West that he is less isolated than it might think and to transform Brics into an anti-West economic bloc that aims to reduce US global influence.
Mr Galloway has a history of backing enemies of the West. He was expelled from the Labour party in 2003 after calling the Iraq war illegal and urging Arab nations to resist.
He lost his Rochdale parliamentary seat, which he had won as leader of the Workers Party, to Labour at the July general election.