Editorial: Business should be just business, until it’s much more than that
ONE assumes it wasn’t supposed to play out quite like this for Vladimir Putin. The Russian President surely anticipated a quick and easy military incursion into Ukraine – a military horribly overmatched, an inexperienced leader, and with the west unwilling to support. It is still so very early, but it does not appear that Putin is seeing quite what he wanted.
Ukraine may well fall to Russian forces, with Moscow growing ever more brutal in its suppression of military resistance. The uptick in civilian attacks that seems evident from reports on the ground does not suggest that the bloody-minded tyrant in the Kremlin is minded to find peace anytime soon.
Who knows which of Russia’s growing list of reported war crimes in Ukraine it was that persuaded BP to bail out of Rosneft last evening, but the decision is to be applauded.
There is a distinct difference between doing business with people you wouldn’t necessarily invite for dinner and sitting on the board of a Kremlin-backed oil company run by a man widely considered to be one of Vladimir Putin’s best pals. Shareholders will deliver their verdict on BP’s decision, but this newspaper thinks it is the right thing to do, despite what will be a very high financial cost. We only hope politicians were less a part of this decision than BP top bosses’ consciences.
There are lessons to be taken on board for other firms not currently in the harsh light of media and political pressure. Firms operating in China, in particular, may wish to consider what plans they might want to put in place if Taiwan begins to feel too tempting a target for Xi Jingping to leave alone. That, too, would be a heinous violation of international law, and not one that in recent years has appeared all that unlikely.
For now, at least, we can look on again with admiration at Ukraine’s resilience, and with relief at the West’s unity. Perhaps Russia’s aggression has awoken a sleeping giant.