Official communiqués on the BRICS summit in Durban are promising new initiatives on trade, economic development and technical co-operation.

But Russia wants more from its partners than just trade. With concern rising in Europe over the worst crackdown on Russian democracy since the Soviet Union collapsed more than 20 years ago, Vladimir Putin is coming to Africa to find supporters of its world view.

Under Putin’s leadership, Russia is looking to foster an alternative community of states, bound not by a common humanity and international obligations that supersede national borders but by a belief that outsiders who raise human rights concerns are threatening to the state.

The old Soviet Union may have supported the African National Congress in exile, but the new Russia does not like global coalitions that support human rights. Indeed, Moscow has worked strenuously to keep the United Nations Security Council from addressing human rights crises such as in Syria.

Small wonder, when Putin himself has presided over a human rights crackdown inside Russia. After massive, peaceful street demonstrations in Moscow and other cities more than a year ago, protesting against alleged electoral fraud and widespread official corruption, the Kremlin and other officials blamed Western agents and "foreign influence" for the challenge to their authority. And after Putin took back the presidency in May–returning to the pinnacle of power after six years of biding his time as prime minister–the authorities took swift action to marginalise their critics.

In the past several months, the parliament rubber-stamped a raft of draconian new laws: curtailing free expression on the internet; making it riskier to organise and participate in unsanctioned public demonstrations; criminalising libel; expanding the definition of treason in such a way that it could apply to advocacy by nongovernmental organisations; and providing for the suspension of advocacy groups whose work might "threaten Russia’s interests".

Even more ominous legislation adopted in July requires advocacy groups that accept foreign funding to register and identify themselves publicly as "foreign agents". This provision reeks of Soviet-style demonisation and is clearly intended to delegitimise activists in the public eye. Russia still has a vibrant civil society, but it’s under real threat.

Perhaps the most widely known example of the Kremlin’s intolerance for dissent involves the feminist punk band Pussy Riot. In August, three young band members were sentenced to two years in prison for a 40-second political stunt in a Moscow cathedral that criticised Putin, and the Russian Orthodox Church’s close relationship with the Kremlin. The warning to Russian activists was clear.

Putin seems to believe that his domestic critics would wither without international support. On the international stage, his return to the presidency has been marked by an increasingly aggressive tone towards the West. On Syria, the Russian government has steadfastly refused to acknowledge that the civil war began as a peaceful protest movement against the government of Bashir al-Assad, Moscow’s last friend in the Middle East. For more than two years, the Kremlin has blocked any meaningful UN Security Council action to stop the violence or even to allow humanitarian aid to flow across Syria’s borders, directly to the millions of civilians who so desperately need it.

The Syrian government has appealed to the BRICS countries — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — for support, while a broad range of civil society groups are appealing to the BRICS summit for a clearer condemnation of Syrian government brutality against civilians. Pretoria will have to navigate the competing demands of Putin and its own calls to conscience.

But more broadly, South Africa must decide how it wishes to see Russia. The South African government has its own reasons to feel disappointed with the West.

At the same time, Pretoria should not support the notion that human rights are not the concern of the broader international community. It should not buy into the idea, broadly hinted at by Putin and others, that for outsiders to promote human rights inside another country is an intolerable infringement on sovereignty.

If it supports democratic values and civil society, Pretoria must make clear to its Russian guest that the crackdown at home will win Russia no friends here. The ANC fought for freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and the dignity of the individual. Vladimir Putin is not their champion.

Hicks is global advocacy director at Human Rights Watch.