Russia as a country of BRICS: Issue of identification

Abstract

The approach of development economics has been rarely used in the studies on the BRICS research agenda. This article is an attempt to fill this gap. According to development economics, the appearance of the BRICS association is fully justifiable, because large emerging economies have much in common. Russia is the most advanced country among the BRICS, even though some years ago it fell into the group of laggards in terms of economic growth, together with Brazil and South Africa. It may be partly explained by those countries’ adherence to neoclassical recipes of economic policy. It is believed, however, that national economic interests of all the five countries could be more effectively served by a combination of further pro-market reforms with public interventions to correct the inevitable market failures. That is why, for the Russian comparative advantages to be fully realized, the country should rely not so much on trade liberalization as on coordination among the BRICS governments in their actions aimed at trade and investment promotion.