If one sheep is over the dam, more will follow. The latest variation on this saying is: if some major companies cease operations in Russia, others cannot be left behind. Shell, BP and ExxonMobil announced successively this week that they are withdrawing from Russia. Apple, Siemens and Dell withdrew their sales to Russia. Boeing and Airbus are suspending all services to Russian customers. Volvo will stop exports to Russia, BMW will stop production in Russia and export to Russia, Renault will stop assembly in Russia next week. Disney, Warner Bros and Sony Pictures will no longer be releasing films in Russia. And so you can continue.
Another variation on the saying: if measures are taken against Russia in one sport, other sports cannot be left behind. Fifa banned Russia from participating in the World Cup. The Formula 1 federation FIA canceled the Russian Grand Prix. The International Judo Federation stripped well-known judoka Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin from his honorary presidency. Badminton, volleyball, hockey, skiing and many other sports: Russians can no longer participate in international tournaments on behalf of their country. Disabled athletes from Russia and Belarus were banned from participating in the Paralympic Winter Games on Thursday just before the start. Russian walkers, if interested, are also not welcome at the Nijmegen Four Days Marches this year.
Western phenomenon
Countries have been exposed to sanctions and embargoes for many years. In 1980 the United States boycotted the Olympic Games in Moscow, in 1984 the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles Games. But it is unprecedented that hundreds of companies and organizations in just a few days to call one and the same country on hold. Putin’s war in Ukraine is, you could argue, the trigger for a kind of geopolitical variant of what has come to be called the ‘cancel culture’. Where individuals have been canceled so far, a country seemed to be canceled for the first time this week.
Wikipedia defines ‘cancel culture’ as ‘a phenomenon whereby famous people are boycotted after being exposed to criticism in a social discourse or in the publicity’. Replace “famous people” with “famous countries” and you have a nice description of the treatment Russia received this week.
It is likely that Putin did not see that coming. The cancel culture is not a phenomenon into which he is initiated, it is a Western phenomenon of the last five to ten years. That culture came from the United States to Europe, but never reached the eastern regions. In Russia, emancipatory movements had been condemned to the margins of society for decades, until Putin simply banned them altogether. While the cancel culture took off in North America and Western Europe, the leader of Russia set himself up as the figurehead of the old-fashioned, patriarchal, masculine world. In Russia, there is only one who can utter curses, and that is the leader who rides in his bare skin.
Settlement
It’s an open secret that Russia has its equivalents of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey, who watched with some glee as Western celebrities can be judged for their behavior today. But now that this culture appears to be able to take on a geopolitical guise, Russian artists, athletes and entrepreneurs have to deal with it. Countries can thus become a kind of political equivalents of Harvey Weinstein. Orchestras this week did not break with the Russian conductor Valery Gergiev because of his own behavior, but because of that of a regime from which he does not distance himself. Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky died well before Putin came to power and did not like authoritarianism, but the Philharmonie Haarlem is canceling the festival weekend that was devoted to these Russian composers.
Just as Putin probably didn’t suspect that his “limited military operation” would lead to “Russia’s cancellation,” companies and organizations probably didn’t suspect they would get involved. Characteristic of this cancel culture are unpredictability and rising emotions. Once it’s started, it can go fast. Anyone who does not make themselves heard risks reputational damage. They may not have felt it at the beginning of this week at Renault to stop production in Russia, but when BMW announced that, another car manufacturer could not stay behind.
Bitter feeling
It may be encouraging for residents of Ukraine that Western companies are willing to shell out billions in protest at the gross violation of their country’s territorial integrity and the war crimes committed by Russia. It can also cause a bitter feeling. As little as residents now benefit from BP divesting its stake in Rosneft, Dell no longer selling screens in Moscow malls, and Disney no longer releasing films there, it would have benefited them as much as years ago Gazprom’s expansion in Western countries would have benefited them. Europe had come to a halt. It would have helped Ukraine if the Gasunie had not taken a critical look at the state of affairs in Putin’s Russia at the beginning of this week, but at the beginning of this century. Nothing the Putin regime is doing in Ukraine is new.