Inside Putin’s Alternate Reality: Warm Embraces and a Veneer of Normalcy

For three uninterrupted days this week, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, basked in the attention of other world leaders in the picturesque Russian city of Kazan, along the banks of the Volga River.

He beamed as he clinked a champagne flute with visiting heads of state at a gala dinner. He stood proudly beside the powerful leaders of China and India, who chose his country to hold their own first official meeting in more than five years. And he held court at round table discussions during which he pronounced that the West is facing an irreversible process of decline.

Elsewhere in the world, Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine was raging toward year three. Western officials expressed alarm that North Korean soldiers were present in Russia, which Mr. Putin appeared to tacitly confirm. Israel seemed poised to retaliate against Iran as the threat of a wider war in the Middle East loomed.

And the eyes of the world were turning toward an American presidential election in less than two weeks that could drastically alter global security.

Little of that penetrated the bubble Mr. Putin created around his gathering, a meeting of emerging market countries. The summit — known by the acronym BRICS — had the feel of an alternate reality.

Surrounded by mostly like-minded leaders, compliant state media and pro-Kremlin bloggers, Mr. Putin positioned himself as the respected head of an important power helping to forge a more equal world order.