The group’s combined GDP is $20 trillion greater than that of the Western bloc, the Russian president has said BRICS has already outstripped the Western-dominated Group of Seven in terms of combined GDP, Russian President Vladimir Putin has stated.    Speaking via video link at a plenary session of the 17th annual BRICS summit in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday, Putin said that the “BRICS member states not only account for a third of the Earth’s land, and almost half the planet’s population, but also