TASS says "obsessed with destabilizing Russia"; Life.ru says Moscow takes BRICS help "with gratitude"

One interview. Sergey Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister and its BRICS sherpa, spoke to TASS before the summit in New Delhi. Five reports we hold come out of that one interview. No two carry the same quote.

What each took out of it

Outlet	What it led with
TASS	the West and Ukraine are "obsessed with destabilizing Russia"; expect "no political miracles"
Life.ru	Moscow accepts BRICS partners' offers to help settle Ukraine "with gratitude"
Regnum, 23:26	"many BRICS countries" offered help on the "Ukrainian crisis"
Regnum, 00:39	Iran is the sharpest political question for the bloc
Vedomosti	Iran remains the sharpest question for BRICS

The word chosen. The two reports carrying the offer of help call it the Ukrainian conflict and the Ukrainian crisis. None of the five calls it a war, and none says what settling it would mean.

Who is named. Not one BRICS government is named as having offered. It is "partners" in one report and "many countries" in the other. Four of the five put Ryabkov's name in the headline; TASS, on the hostile line, has "senior diplomat".

Not settled. Whether any BRICS state made an offer, and what it was. We hold one official's account, told five ways, with no country named and nobody outside the Russian foreign ministry speaking. No Western, Ukrainian or Indian answer to the destabilisation line is in front of us.

What this is about. Russia wants to show it still has partners outside the West. This story is about how its foreign ministry described one of them, the BRICS group, in the days before the group's summit.

How it got here

2009–2010. Brazil, Russia, India and China hold the first BRIC summit. South Africa joins in 2010 and the group becomes BRICS. It is a forum, not an alliance. It has no common defence and no binding treaty on foreign policy.
2014. Russia annexes Crimea, and fighting begins in eastern Ukraine. This is when the war began.
February 2022. Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The US, the EU and their allies impose sweeping sanctions. No BRICS member joins them.
2023–2024. BRICS expands. Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates join in 2024, and Indonesia follows in 2025. Some members now openly disagree with each other. One Russian report says some members are "sharply critical" of what Tehran is doing.
Peace proposals. Since 2023, China, Brazil and a group of African states led by South Africa have each put forward ideas for ending the war. None has produced talks that both sides accepted.

Who the actors are

Russia is using BRICS to show it is not isolated.
Sergey Ryabkov is a deputy foreign minister and Russia's "sherpa", the official who prepares summits.
India chairs BRICS this year and hosted the summit in New Delhi on 12–13 September. It buys Russian oil and also keeps close ties with Washington.
Ukraine is not in BRICS. We hold no statement from Kyiv on it.

What is at stake. If BRICS members stand behind Moscow, sanctions bite less and Russia can say most of the world is not against it. If members keep their distance, the group stays what it has usually been: a forum where members talk but seldom act together.

Where it stands. All five reports ran before the summit. We hold no report of what the summit agreed. We also hold nothing that says which BRICS government, if any, offered to mediate, or what it offered.

What is being argued about

What Ryabkov said before the New Delhi BRICS summit, and which sentence each outlet chose
An unnamed offer of BRICS help over Ukraine, carried by two reports
Iran ranked as the bloc's sharpest political question
What the five reports call the war, and whom they name as the speaker

One interview, five ledesSide by side

Outlet	What it led with	Speaker named in the headline?
Vedomosti, 7 Sep 19:52	Iran remains the sharpest question for BRICS	yes
Regnum, 7 Sep 23:26	"Many BRICS countries" offered help on the "Ukrainian crisis"	yes
Life.ru, 7 Sep 23:43	Moscow accepts BRICS partners' offers to help settle Ukraine "with gratitude"	yes
TASS, 8 Sep 00:12	The West and Ukraine are "obsessed with destabilizing Russia"; no "political miracles" expected	no — "senior diplomat"
Regnum, 8 Sep 00:39	The conflict around Iran is the sharpest political question for BRICS	yes

Every row is the same Ryabkov interview given to TASS before the New Delhi summit. Times are UTC.

Sources V Vedomosti R Regnum L Life.ru T TASS R Regnum

Claims and verdicts

unverified BRICS member states have offered Russia help in settling the war in Ukraine.

Life.ru and Regnum both quote deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov saying Moscow feels the support of BRICS countries, but both are relaying the same TASS interview, which is one account. No named BRICS government appears in any report we hold.

Checked against 3 sources:

L Life.ru R Regnum T TASS

unverified Iran, not Ukraine, is the sharpest political question facing the BRICS summit in New Delhi.

Regnum and Vedomosti both carry it, and both are reporting the same Ryabkov interview with TASS. It is one Russian official's assessment with no other party we hold speaking to it.

Checked against 3 sources:

R Regnum V Vedomosti T TASS

unverified The West and Ukraine are obsessed with destabilising Russia.

This is Ryabkov's characterisation, carried only by TASS, and no evidence for it appears in the report. Nothing else we hold on this interview repeats it, and no Western or Ukrainian response is in the store.

Checked against 1 source:

T TASS

Who wrote it

В Виталий Приходько Life.ru

What the bias passes found in their reporting

Asserted before attributed Moscow's gratitude narrated in the first sentence, the speaker named in the second×1

Asserted, not attributed the offers of help stated as fact in the first sentence, sourced only afterwards×1

What the other side's soldiers are called Ukrainian soldiers called militants, surrender stated flat in the headline×1

Word chosen for combatants Ukrainian soldiers called militants; the claim rests on unnamed security structures×1

Claims we checked that rest on their reporting

3 unverified

From 847 reports we hold under this byline, at Life.ru. Two independent readings, each made without the masthead, a quote attached to every tag. A record, never a rating. Their full record →

А Анна Суслова Vedomosti

What the bias passes found in their reporting

Attribution inside the headline the same claim carried as the speaker's, not as fact×1

Framing Frames the finding as the EU contradicting Kyiv. The report has no body text to support that.×1

Headline carries a claim as attribution "strikes on civilian sites" is stated in the headline, the colon doing the work of attribution×1

Headline omission The headline drops both the EU scope and the law, so the change reads as applying everywhere.×1

Claims we checked that rest on their reporting

3 unverified2 true

From 571 reports we hold under this byline, at Vedomosti. Two independent readings, each made without the masthead, a quote attached to every tag. A record, never a rating. Their full record →

The bylines on the reports this story is built from. Hover one for what our passes have measured on their reporting. · 3 reports we hold carry no byline — we do not invent one.

Coverage, outlet by outlet

R Regnum —

Рябков: на БРИКС острой политической темой будет военный конфликт вокруг Ирана

Regnum's second report is the only one that gives a reason Iran is hard for the bloc: BRICS contains states that take different positions on it.

Конфликт вокруг Ирана является самым острым вопросом в политическом плане для БРИКС. Об этом заявил замглавы МИД России Сергей Рябков в интервью Аналитическому центру ТАСС в преддверии саммита объединения в Нью-Дели. «По Ирану ситуация осложняется тем, что в составе БРИКС есть страны, которые занима...

What is led with: the same interview led on Iran, with Ukraine absent from the lede — “Конфликт вокруг Ирана является самым острым вопросом в политическом плане для БРИКС.”

Asserted before attributed: the ranking of Iran as the sharpest issue stated flat, then sourced — “Конфликт вокруг Ирана является самым острым вопросом в политическом плане для БРИКС.”

Read it at Regnum → https://regnum.ru/news/4060213

T TASS — state-controlled

West, Ukraine obsessed with destabilizing Russia — senior diplomat

TASS is the only report carrying the destabilisation line, and the only one warning against expecting "any political miracles" from the summit — and the only one of the five that does not name Ryabkov in its headline

MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. The West and the Kiev regime are obsessed with finding ways to destabilize Russia’s domestic situation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and BRICS Sherpa Sergey Ryabkov told TASS in an interview ahead of the group’s summit in New Delhi on September 12-13. "The problem is that the other side is currently obsessed with finding ways to set us back and destabilize the situation within Russia. Under these circumstances, I would not expect any political miracles from the BRICS summit. The dialogue will continue. Discussions, including in-depth talks, and exchanges of view

Attribution in the headline: the claim carried in the headline, the speaker reduced to "senior diplomat" — “West, Ukraine obsessed with destabilizing Russia — senior diplomat”

What is led with: the subheading leads on lowered expectations for the summit — “Sergey Ryabkov said he "would not expect any political miracles" from the upcoming BRICS summit”

Headline claim the body does not carry: hostile intent asserted in the headline, speaker described but not named — “West, Ukraine obsessed with destabilizing Russia — senior diplomat”

Read it at TASS → https://tass.com/politics/2183869

L Life.ru —

Рябков: Партнёры по БРИКС предложили России помощь в урегулировании на Украине

Life.ru is the only report that says Moscow accepts the offers "with gratitude"; the gratitude is stated flat in the first sentence and the speaker arrives in the second.

«За истёкшее время многие участники БРИКС предлагали содействие. Мы с благодарностью это воспринимали», — отметил дипломат. По словам Рябкова, Россия чувствует поддержку со стороны стран объединения в поиске сбалансированного и разумного решения конфликта. Такой подход, подчеркнул замминистра, отвечал бы коренным интересам страны. Ранее российский лидер Владимир Путин поздравил президента Бразилии Лулу да Силву с Днём независимости, назвав его «дорогим другом». Путин отметил, что Москва и Бразилиа успешно развивают стратегическое партнёрство и координируют действия в ООН, БРИКС и «Группе двадц

Asserted, not attributed: the offers of help stated as fact in the first sentence, sourced only afterwards — “Москва с благодарностью принимает предложения партнёров по БРИКС помочь в урегулировании украинского конфликта.”

Asserted before attributed: Moscow's gratitude narrated in the first sentence, the speaker named in the second — “Москва с благодарностью принимает предложения партнёров по БРИКС помочь в урегулировании украинского конфликта.”

Read it at Life.ru → https://life.ru/p/ryabkov-partnery-po-briks-predlozhili-rossii-pomosch-…

R Regnum —

Замглавы МИД Рябков: страны БРИКС предлагали помощь в урегулировании на Украине

Regnum puts a size on the offer without a name — "many countries" — and quotes Ryabkov saying Russia feels the support of BRICS states for its efforts.

Многие страны БРИКС выражали готовность помочь России в урегулировании украинского кризиса. Об этом 8 сентября заявил заместитель министра иностранных дел России, шерпа в БРИКС Сергей Рябков. «Что касается Украины, то мы, действительно, чувствуем поддержку странами, входящими в БРИКС, наших усилий п...

The measure chosen: "many countries" with no country named and no number — “Многие страны БРИКС выражали готовность помочь России в урегулировании украинского кризиса.”

Which measure was chosen: "many countries" offered help; not one is named — “Многие страны БРИКС выражали готовность помочь России в урегулировании украинского кризиса.”

Read it at Regnum → https://regnum.ru/news/4060209

V Vedomosti —

Рябков: ситуация вокруг Ирана остается самым острым вопросом для БРИКС

Vedomosti published first of the five, and carries the Iran ranking as Ryabkov's own — "Ryabkov:" in the headline — where Regnum states it as fact and sources it afterwards.

Иранский конфликт остается самым острым вопросом в политическом плане для БРИКС, заявил ТАСС заместитель главы МИД РФ Сергей Рябков. «По Ирану ситуация осложняется тем, что внутри БРИКС, в составе БРИКС есть страны, которые занимают резко критическую позицию в отношении того, что предпринимается Тегераном и предпринималось за последнее время», – сказал он. Рябков отметил, что острым вопросом для стран-участниц БРИКС является ситуация в Персидском заливе в целом. Дипломат добавил, что БРИКС сейчас занимается подготовкой документа по урегулированию конфликта, однако от прогнозов Рябков воздержал

What is led with: headline is Iran alone, no mention of Ukraine — “Рябков: ситуация вокруг Ирана остается самым острым вопросом для БРИКС”

Attribution inside the headline: the same claim carried as the speaker's, not as fact — “Рябков: ситуация вокруг Ирана остается самым острым вопросом для БРИКС”

Read it at Vedomosti → https://www.vedomosti.ru/politics/news/2026/09/07/1227059-situatsiya-vo…

Checked, didn’t cover

M Meduza R RIA Novosti T The Moscow Times S Suspilne U Ukrainska Pravda I Interfax U Ukrinform M Mediazona N Novaya Gazeta Europe

Silence is recorded, not inferred — each of these was read when we built this story and carried nothing on this event.

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TASS says "obsessed with destabilizing Russia"; Life.ru says Moscow takes BRICS help "with gratitude"

What is being argued about

One interview, five ledes

The word for the war

Claims and verdicts

Who wrote it

Coverage, outlet by outlet