As U.S. election jitters loomed over this week’s meeting of world finance chiefs in Washington, a smiling Vladimir Putin was in the Russian city of Kazan to welcome the leaders of countries that together make up nearly half the population worldwide.

The BRICS club of emerging economies may be far from rivaling the IMF or challenging the dominance of the US dollar, but the first summit with its new group of members showed clear signs of its growing clout…