Make no mistake. We are at war with Russia. It's not declared. It's not a shooting war. But we are fighting on two fronts nonetheless: the diplomatic and the economic. It's that second front that's contributing to the pain we're feeling at the petrol pump.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
Volatility in the price of crude has followed the imposition of sanctions on Russia. It has led to steep rises at the bowser - and some pretty sharp falls as well. Increased fuel costs will lead to price rises across the board as transport becomes more expensive.
War is costly, even if it's undeclared and our primary weapon is sanctions rather than bullets and bombs.
But the price we're paying - and will continue to pay for some time to come - is infinitely preferable to that being borne by the people of Ukraine. We might be paying more for fuel, food and services but we're not counting the cost in body bags and bombed out buildings. We are not mourning brothers, sisters, sons and daughters, mothers and fathers and friends killed by missile strikes and artillery shells.
That's not to say we have not shed blood in the conflict. We still mourn the 38 Australians who died when Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was downed by a Russian missile over Ukraine in 2014. Australia just this week launched fresh legal action to hold Russia accountable for that act of mass murder.
Our cost-of-living pain is a price worth paying because to do nothing would signal to Russia and Vladimir Putin, and every other autocrat with territorial designs on its sovereign neighbours, that acts of military aggression would attract no consequences.
Last century taught us some hard lessons about not standing up to military aggression. The appeasement of Adolf Hitler at the expense of Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s did not sate the appetite of the Nazi dictator; it whetted it.
The eerie echoes of that dark time haunt us today.
There are the pretexts for the invasion. With Hitler's assault on Poland, it was the alleged mistreatment of German minorities. With Putin, the alleged mistreatment of Russians in the Donbas region in Eastern Ukraine. There's the brutality. The bombardment of residential areas and hospitals. The crushing of internal dissent, the mass arrests of anti-war protesters, the shutdown of social media, the alternative reality of the Russian propaganda machine.
READ MORE:
The West finds itself walking a very fine line. It certainly does not want a shooting war with Russia. The risk of escalation is simply too high - and there is Russia's nuclear arsenal to consider. Morally, however, the West is obliged to act - which it has done with its regime of ever-tighter sanctions.
We are already feeling the effects of that action. It is tough. And chances are it will get even tougher. The effects of sanctions will hurt Russia even more. There, the value of the rouble has collapsed and wheat exports have been halted as food supplies are threatened.
That is the cost of a war we did not want but are compelled to fight if we are to have any chance of avoiding a much wider conflict.
So as the national conversation turns to the high cost of living, we should not forget what's driving a significant part of it. We need to ask ourselves if we're willing to pay the price of trying to preserve a rules-based, civilised system of international relations.
John Hanscombe
Four decades in the media, working in print and television. Formerly editor of the South Coast Register and Milton Ulladulla Times. Based on the South Coast of NSW.
Four decades in the media, working in print and television. Formerly editor of the South Coast Register and Milton Ulladulla Times. Based on the South Coast of NSW.
