As of 1 January 2024, the United Arab Emirates has officially joined the BRICS bloc, when Saudi Arabia expressed its willingness to join the entity. This paper firstly aims to explore the impact of the Ukraine war on the attitudes of the two nations towards BRICS, and especially how it is reflected in their decision to join the Russia-led bloc. Secondly, it argues that inspiration to join the group has also boosted Russia–UAE and Russia–Saudi Arabia bilateral relations. In particular, Russia–UAE relations have been boosted in both hard (trade; arms deals) and soft power (cultural, social ties), while hard power (energy deals) has been central in Russia–Saudi relations. Thirdly, through discourse analyses, the paper explores the key geo-economic rationales of UAE and Saudi Arabia officials in joining the BRICS. Meanwhile, based on the understanding of Russia’s stake-holders, Russia has been cultivating a narrative of a “world majority”, in which it places itself along with the Global South and the East, together constituting the majority of the world’s economy and population; Saudi and the UAE are key actors in this process. The paper concludes by describing the key soft and hard challenges for all sides in achieving these objectives.