TASS says Putin and Xi had "no opportunity to talk"; Regnum says they held "a short conversation"

The moment. Four Russian reports describe the same sidelines at the BRICS summit in New Delhi on 12 September. Three say Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping greeted each other and had no chance to speak. One says they spoke.

One source, three times. TASS, Interfax and Vedomosti all trace to the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov. Regnum, filed 43 minutes before the first of them, names nobody at all. Nobody who stood in that corridor is quoted in any report we hold.

Not settled. Which word Peskov used — "no opportunity" or "not yet substantively" — and whether those are the same denial. Whether a handshake and a short exchange are being described as one thing or two. Whether Modi was part of it. We hold no Chinese and no Indian account of the encounter, and no photograph of it.

What this is about. Whether the leaders of Russia and China spoke at a summit in India, and why Moscow's own press cannot agree on it.

How it got here. BRICS began in 2009 as a club of big non-Western economies: Brazil, Russia, India and China. South Africa joined in 2010. Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates joined in 2024. It has no treaty army and no common market. Its leaders meet once a year, and the country holding the chair hosts. This year that is India, in New Delhi, on 12–13 September, Vedomosti reports.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, eight years after it annexed Crimea in 2014. The United States, the European Union and their allies answered with sanctions. Moscow turned east and south for trade, buyers for its oil, and diplomatic company. BRICS is one of the few stages where Russia's president still sits as an equal with the leaders of large economies. In March 2023 the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin's arrest. India is not a member of the court, so he can travel there.

The actors. - Vladimir Putin, Russia's president, needs to be seen with partners who have not cut him off. - Xi Jinping, China's president, leads Russia's most important partner since the sanctions. In February 2022, weeks before the invasion, the two declared a partnership with "no limits". - Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, is hosting. India buys Russian oil and arms and also courts Washington. - Dmitry Peskov has been the Kremlin's spokesman since 2012. He is the usual source when Russian outlets report what Putin did.

What is at stake. Every meeting between Putin and Xi is read as a sign of how close Beijing stands to Moscow while the war goes on. If they spoke, and if Modi was with them, that says one thing. If they only nodded to each other in a corridor, it says another.

Where it stands. Vedomosti reports that Peskov said there were still evening events to come. It also lists the leaders Putin did meet on the sidelines: South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, Egypt's Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Malaysia's Anwar Ibrahim, Ethiopia's Abiy Ahmed, and Dilma Rousseff, head of the BRICS New Development Bank. None of our reports says whether Putin and Xi met later.