Autocracies vs democracies – A question of personal choice

The war in Ukraine is showing once more, how interconnected the global economies are and hence to what extent our lifestyle depends on what in democratic terms are unfriendly governments. Russia provides a substantial share of oil, gas and coal burnt in Europe, and hence the ‘special military operation’ against pro-western Ukraine poses a dilemma. Even more so in the current climate of rising inflation and, of course, n the context of climate change.

While Europe according to the World Economic Forum imports less oil and gas from Russia than it used to, its imports now directly not only fund an autocratic government but indirectly also its invasion of a pro-western neighbour. Russia has always played by its own rule book, a fact which has been implicitly accepted by the west. Behaviours that may not have been a matter of national conscience beforehand, such as the poisonings of Russian citizens on British soil, have now become acutely so with score of civilians being killed in Ukraine by the same authoritarian administration.

Doing business with autocrats and dictators has rarely been seriously questioned, as the buyers’ needs (of abundant supplies of oil and gas, for example) and the associated businesses’ profits were mostly more important than ethical considerations. And we don’t even have to look that far to identify leaders with autocratic tendencies: Donald Trump, Boris Johnson, Victor Orban and Jair Bolsonaro share fit the bill according to The Age of the Strongman, a book by Gideon Rachman, a Financial Times columnist. To varying degrees, Rachman explains, they all claim to speak for the common man, while undermining institutions, stoking nationalism and cultivating a personal style of politics, if not an outright personality cult. And just as a side note: Recent voting patterns for example in the first round of the French presidential election seem to show that young voters favour more populist candidates and policies, which may lead to our own administrations potentially becoming more autocratic in the future.

So what are we supposed to do? Can we continue to trade with nations, which blatantly ignore democratic core values and human rights as if nothing happened because stopping doing so would be inconvenient? As we head into the warmer months of the year, we won’t have to face the harsh consequences of a boycott off Russian oil and gas immediately, and I suspect that the milder climes over the coming months will lead our politicians to procrastinate. But the next winter will come soon enough, and with it the question of whether we should we turn the thermostat down a notch or two and put on an extra layer of clothing, or whether we stay comfy in the knowledge that the proceeds from the oil and gas used to heat our homes will go to a government, which will no doubt continue to be oppressive.

And it’s not only the perennial question of whether to do business with dictators and autocrats, but one also has to ask, whether we have the right to impose our values on the population of other countries run under different forms of government. Of course, in Ukraine the situation is clear: With millions of Ukrainians displaced (see my previous blogpost on refugees here) there is no other reasonable option than to help. But how about the autocracies in the Middle East? Dubai, for example, is hardly a hotbed of personal liberties and human rights, yet the local population is paid off handsomely with high tax-free incomes, incentive packages for buying houses and land and pensions and retirement benefits from the age of 49. And the lifestyle attracts scores of westerners to spend holidays or even settle there.

In a sense I suppose we all would have to admit to be a bit hypocritical when it comes to making trade-offs between our own comfort and ethical considerations. So, as next winter is only a few months away, what are we going to do as far as oil and gas from Russia are concerned? Are we going to bite the bullet, put on that extra layer of clothing and turn the dial on our thermostats down, or will we continue to financially support an autocracy which uses some of these revenues to fund a war against an independent democracy?