Russian President Vladimir Putin has presented himself as the leader of an international coalition of states at the BRICS summit in Kazan, a city of millions on the Volga River. In the official opening photo, he posed as the host, flanked by Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, portraying a stronger and increasingly confident alliance that the head of the Kremlin aims to build as a counterbalance to the West. The acronym BRICS is derived from the initial letters of the founding member countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The alliance now als…