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The club of autocrats and our complicity in the war in Ukraine

2022-03-24T05:05:59.485Z


The fact is that, despite the rhetoric, economic interests often take precedence over values, and Western companies and institutions are vying to sell their services to regimes like Vladimir Putin's.


The Russian invasion of Ukraine represents one more nail in the coffin of the international order established after the Second World War to prevent another large-scale armed conflict.

Gone is the triumphalism that accompanied the end of the Cold War, when Francis Fukuyama announced "the end of history" and the victory of liberal democracy.

In the three decades since, the resurgence of nationalism and populism has weakened it to the point that Freedom House titled its 2021 annual report

Democracy Under Siege

.

Siege that has now turned into open warfare.

However, Fukuyama was not wrong about the decline of ideologies.

Neither has replaced communism as an alternative to Western liberalism, and the least that can be said of the regimes that defy the international order is that they are not ideologically united.

In the club of autocrats there is room for the "communism with Chinese characteristics" of the PCCh, the Iranian Islamist theocracy, the exacerbated nationalism of Putin and the grotesque Venezuelan Chavismo.

In the absence of ideology, they are united by disdain for human rights, considered a Western pretext to interfere in other countries, and the defense of national sovereignty in the face of the emergence of global norms such as electoral observation, sanctions regimes and responsibility to protect.

Autocrats cooperate on various levels.

Financially, they help each other avoid sanctions.

China is one of the main creditors of Venezuela, whose decrepit oil industry has received huge investments from Russian companies.

When Western countries punished Alexander Lukashenko after the fraudulent 2020 presidential election, Russia opened its markets to Belarus.

China, which has its largest European industrial park a few kilometers from Minsk, has also become the most important market for Iranian oil and the main destination for Russian exports.

More information

Latest news from the war in Ukraine, live

In the area of ​​security, China and Russia have been conducting joint military exercises since 2005, and in 2019 they began to include Iran in their naval exercises.

After the Syrian revolution, the Islamic Republic mobilized its resources to guarantee the survival of Bashar al-Assad's regime and the Russian intervention decisively tilted the balance in its favour.

In response to massive popular demonstrations against Lukashenko, Putin sent advisers to him to train his security forces in the techniques used in Russia to intimidate the opposition.

Now Belarus actively supports its war in Ukraine.

In the United Nations, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea voted against the resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while China, Iran and Cuba abstained and Venezuela did not make an appearance.

Even “friendly” autocrats of the West such as the absolute monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been reluctant to criticize Russia and have evasively answered Western requests to increase their hydrocarbon production to avoid an uncontrolled escalation. Of the prices.

It was predictable;

in the past they have provided diplomatic support for Chinese policies in Xinjiang and Hong Kong.

The mention of Saudi Arabia and the UAE brings us to the issue of our responsibility for the current crisis, as it is a good example of inconsistency and double standards.

The West routinely overlooks its persistent human rights violations, from the persecution of dissidents to the abusive

kafala

system that exploits workers from poor countries.

The UK and US have provided training, intelligence and logistical support for their war in Yemen.

Emmanuel Macron toured the region last December to promote the French arms industry and had the dubious honor of being the first Western leader to publicly shake hands with Mohamed bin Salman after the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The fact is that, despite the rhetoric, economic interests often take precedence over values, and Western companies and institutions vie to sell their services to autocrats.

Today the largest tax havens are not in the Caribbean islands but in the United States.

Its different states compete with each other for corporate registrations, and Delaware has become "the world's leading tax haven," according to Casey Michael, author of

American Kleptocracy.

How the US Created the World's Greatest Money Laundering Scheme in History

.

But the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada... they all appear as prominent destinations for funds of dubious origin in the

Pandora Papers

revealed last October.

Western banks set up shell companies to launder money stolen from treasuries or from the exploitation of national resources.

Western lawyers handle the paperwork and keep prosecutors at bay.

Western PR firms and consultants protect reputations.

Western real estate agents provide luxurious penthouses in Paris and New York and summer homes in Tuscany and the Costa del Sol. And Western luxury goods sellers ensure that dictators and oligarchs and their progeny, wives and mistresses can sport Rolex watches. , Cartier jewelry, Louis Vuitton bags and Lamborghini sports cars.

We could add to the list of moral failures of the West the lack of respect for that international order that it supposedly defends.

Thus, his "global war on terror" justified military interventions that had terrible consequences for Afghans and Iraqis, and was accompanied by illegal policies such as extraordinary renditions and indefinite detentions of suspected terrorists.

Similarly, his increasing use of mercenaries (excuse me, military contractors) prompted and legitimized similar behaviour, such as the creation of the Wagner Group that Putin has deployed in Donbas, Syria, Libya and now the rest of Ukraine, and which He has been hired by the coup government in Mali to replace the anti-jihadist coalition led by France.

Much was tolerated for Putin: repeated assassinations and attempted assassinations of opponents even in Western countries, aggression against Georgia in 2008, annexation of Crimea in 2014 and support for Donbas separatists ever since, use of troll farms and cyber attacks to subvert democratic countries… We responded with timid sanctions and the expulsion of a few spies, while investing in projects that perpetuated our dependence on Russian hydrocarbons and rolled out the red carpet for the oligarchs who financed the Kremlin adventurism, allowing their ill-gotten gains distort our housing markets and buy political influence.

What would make the Russian autocrat think that this new aggression would generate a stronger response?

Western leaders must take advantage of this crisis to prevent a return to an anarchic world order in which strong countries can invade their weaker neighbors with impunity.

And for this, they must live up to the values ​​that underlie the liberal order.

Thus, they must base their policies on respect for human rights;

increase their cooperation to close tax havens and implement anti-money laundering laws;

and agree not to sell weapons to oppressive regimes, so that the scruples of one do not become the profits of another.

Only then will his speeches in defense of democracy have credibility in the eyes of the world.

Ana Belén Soage

is an analyst of geopolitics and international relations and collaborator of Public Agenda

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-03-24

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