Russia was conspicuously absent on the name list of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade alliance, with the deal signed – though not yet ratified – by 12 nations in Auckland (New Zealand) on Feb. 4. Moreover, less than a week earlier the Financial Times sounded the death knell for the BRICS,predicting that the grouping will soon be replaced by a new union nicknamed TICKs, made of Taiwan, India, China and Korea (South).

Does this amount to a significant change in the evolving economic pecking order? Will it eventually, if the newspaper’s “Cassandra” Steve Johnson has a point, leave Russia on the margins of global investment flows and the highway of hi-tech growth?

First of all, under the pressure of U.S. sanctions, Russia actually had no chance of being included in the new trade bloc, comprised of the U.S., Japan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Chile and Peru. While in total, the 12 countries account for some 40 percent of the world’s economy, there are several regional “locomotives” of growth that are not included in the grouping, e.g. China, South Korea, and Indonesia.

Available: http://rbth.com/international/troika/2016/02/11/brics-too-early-to-read-the-rites_566897