Russian troops withdrawing from Ukrainian villages have left behind a devastation that is appalling globally. War crimes leave no room for explanation of the resumption of economic relations.
You’re ashamed the bodies on the muddy streets of Bushan tell the truth about the disgraceful war of Russian troops.
Men, women and children have been executed and left in their places, lifeless under the open sky or hastily dug into the ground in mass graves.
Read more: The traces of the retreating Russians reveal more and more gruesome atrocities: bodies burned in Bhutan on the streets and a mass grave of civilians, the President of Ukraine calls for genocide
At the same time, Europe is waking up to homes whose heat comes from gas bought from Russia.
In the scales of economy and morality, one cup contains cheap gasoline and heat, the other war crimes.
So how should the situation be weighed?
Let’s get started obvious. Europe has imposed severe economic sanctions on Russia, but the largest cash flow is still closed.
We are financing the Russian military machinery by buying oil and gas there, according to some estimates, at $ 660 million a day. The closure of these taps is being called for more and more loudly, especially now that the horrors of Bushan have come to light.
However, he is a professor of Russian environmental policy at the Alexander Institute of the University of Helsinki Brother-Pekka Tynkkysen believes that the border was crossed earlier, during the horrors of Mariupol.
“What to expect here, some even more outrageous news?” The stump asks.
Also Director of Research at the Foreign Policy Institute Mikael Wigell notes that the situation is becoming more and more embarrassing for Europe.
“Europe’s gas trade is somewhat ambiguous as it plays into Russia’s bag against Ukraine,” Wigell says.
Germany is now in particular, which has tied its energy policy to Russian natural gas.
Not even Finland can get away with this with clean papers. According to Tynkkynen, it is morally wrong for Neste, for example, to continue to buy oil in Russia by relying on agreements. What does any agreement matter when Russia itself has violated even the most sacred of them.
Fortum’s and Fennovoima’s trade-offs with Russia have their own figures.
Tynkkynen thinks it would be important to remember what is being fought in Ukraine.
“Ukraine is fighting for democracy and free societies, and energy is a weapon in that war. That is why the means of economic sanctions must be used to the maximum, ”says Tynkkynen.
Veli-Pekka Tynkkynen, Professor of Russian Environmental Policy at the Alexander Institute at the University of Helsinki, states that in the future, Europe must critically examine the structures of its own energy and foreign policy.
Energy trade however, not cut off in a day. The issue is difficult, especially for Central European countries, Wigell says.
“However, it is obvious that Russia is committing war crimes. We have a moral responsibility to Ukraine not to fund the Russian military machinery, ”says Wigell.
Several experts interviewed by HS consider the economist of the Business Delegation to be good, among others Sanna Kurrosen as well as the idea of an import tax or import duty presented by some other experts.
If, for example, Russia were to pay 50% import duty on gas, it would both reduce Russia’s military finances and raise funds for Europe to finance both Ukraine’s reconstruction and the green transition.
“I would see the best solution being a joint decision in the Council of Europe on import duties,” Wigell says.
Mikael Wigell, director of research at the Foreign Policy Institute, sees an import tax or import duty as a good way to speed up the transition away from Russian energy.
In the process Europe needs to prepare for the consequences, says economist and doctor of political science Juha Itkonen.
The price of energy is rising, but the effects can be mitigated by reducing motoring, reducing room heat and other energy-saving methods.
Europe is now moving towards spring, so the heat emergency is not acute. However, summer is fast passing by, and next winter the question of heating is ahead again. The transition to green energy needs to be accelerated, interviewees say.
Of course, the interconnections of the economy are so diverse that a complete cessation of trade would also mean another decline in living standards.
Now weigh how much Finns, for example, are prepared to suffer from “cold and hunger” for Ukraine and democracy, such as Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Timo Airaksinen expresses the matter.
From a moral point of view, in the current situation, the obligation of the Finnish state to take care of the realization of the rights of its citizens and Finland’s obligation to help Ukraine contrast.
By stopping trade with Russia, Finland will weaken its own economy and thus its ability to implement the idea of a welfare state.
So the question is how much the citizens have to sacrifice for their own good to help the Ukrainians, Airaksinen says.
Professor Emeritus of Philosophy Timo Airaksinen.
We need to find a so-called moral balance between our obligations to the Ukrainians and respect for the rights of our own citizens.
“My personal opinion is that yes, we should be reasonably prepared to suffer,” Airaksinen says.
No artificial intelligence or professor can calculate the exact point of the moral balance point, Airaksinen says.
The point is defined in an open public debate and political process.
Can you to lower the price of morality?
Reconciling euro amounts and lives is difficult and not very meaningful.
In a way, however, the price of our choices can be inferred indirectly, Itkonen says.
The cessation of exports to Russia is estimated to mean a fall in GDP of about one per cent, or more than two billion euros.
“As long as that choice is not made, it may seem that the moral burden has not been felt worth it,” Itkonen says.
However, Itkonen hopes that the procrastination is not about saving two billion euros, but about the general uncertainty surrounding the severance of economic relations.
“It is imagined that Finland will plunge into recession or something similar in the wake of the cut off trade with Russia. However, that would be very unlikely. ”
Itkonen reminds that it is easy to consider moral issues from the sidelines when one’s own livelihood is not fixed in Russia. Now, however, it would take courage to acknowledge the connections through which we fund the attacker.
“Everyone has to weigh the costs of this war for themselves and for the Ukrainians.”
Economist Juha Itkonen states that strict import duties on Russian products would be a short-term solution. “In the longer term, it is important to build our economy independent of Russia’s whims and arbitrariness.”
Moral defining the equilibrium point requires detachment from the past and realistic, sentimental-free self-reflection, Airaksinen says.
Urho Kekkonen is dead, as is the idea that international relations could be based on presidents’ presumed personal friendships, Airaksinen says.
“We have gone in Putin’s sleigh like a ram on a rope, and we have not been able to get the umbilical cord across Russia. The umbilical cord should now be cut off and it will hurt. ”
Tynkkynen states that the next step is to find out exactly on what grounds Russia policy has been conducted.
A philosophy based on economic interdependence clearly did not work. The narrative continued too far beyond 2014, although many signs pointed in a completely different direction.
Tynkkynen sees that they wanted to close their eyes for their own comfort. The lure of cheap oil is now becoming expensive.
“European foreign and security policy must not be built on the future greed of the energy industry. Fortum, Neste and other large companies have defined our foreign policy. That can’t go on, ”says Tynkkynen.
Companieswhose activities are not subject to sanctions and which have not voluntarily ceased their activities, have justified the continuation of trade on various grounds.
Nokian Tires is in a bad mood with its heavy dependence on Russia. Fazer’s example shows how difficult it has been for Russia to leave the country. Hesburgerka has not yet stopped selling Puritans in Russia.
Read more: Fazer said it was withdrawing from Russia, with the country’s authorities calling in half an hour: “A 15-year prison sentence is a real security threat.”
But what is wrong with taking bread or chocolate to Russia?
All exports free up Russia’s resources for possible harm, Itkonen says.
Selling bread to Russia will benefit the war industry, as it will allow Russia to release the funds intended for bread production and transfer them to the fattening of the army, Itkonen explains.
“These dependencies can be difficult to discern. In long production chains, the moral experience is dissolved on the way, ”says Itkonen.
Wigell says all Western companies will be leaving Russia sooner or later anyway.
A complete Iron Curtain descends between East and West. Business will be hampered by sanctions and it will only be a matter of time before the Russian state begins to nationalize companies, Wigell says.
If Wigell were the boss of a Finnish company, he would leave Russia as soon as possible.
“It’s better to leave before the reputation is gone.”
Anything In Tynkkynen’s opinion, there is no need to wait for the next border crossings.
It is clear that at the moment there is nothing good going on in doing business in Russia. All trade relations must be severed if Putin’s war machine is to be shut down.
At the same time, however, it would be important to communicate to the Russians from the back gate. Economic relations can sometimes be rebuilt if power and attitude change.
“The hand must be extended to Russia in the future.”
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