At a glance, the sixteenth BRICS summit did not create the anti-Western conclave President Vladimir Putin desired. The final declaration and much of the public discussion were principally dedicated to a raft of financial measures, presented as means to facilitate international trade and development: reform of the United Nations and Bretton Woods institutions, and a two-state solution for the Israel-Palestine conflict were recurrent topics, none of them all that controversial internationally. In that same vein, Putin peppered his closing press conference with apparent conciliatory gestures, lik…